“Unfortunate accidents” killed most of the terrorists who captured kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, Homeland Security Minister Matan Vilnai said Wednesday during Jerusalem Unification Day remarks at a school.
He told students at a Jerusalem school that even de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his military leader “do not know where Gilad is being held.” He was abducted nearly five years ago during a deadly raid on a checkpoint adjacent to the Gaza region in which two of Shalit’s comrades were killed.
Hamas has not honored the Geneva Convention that requires contact with the families of kidnap victims and allows for Red Cross visits. Shalit is assumed to be alive, but there have been no signs of his condition since an audio of his voice, obviously under duress, was released two years ago.
He advised that the movement for freeing Shalit at any price – a move that is backed largely by left-wing academics – actually hurts their cause.
Vilnai did not detail what "unfortunate accidents” happened to the terrorists, and the IDF and government generally maintain a tight-lipped policy on undercover operations against terrorists.
Three Gaza terrorists were killed and four others wounded on Tuesday in a mysterious blast at a Popular Resistance Committees training camp near the Egyptian border. Israeli military spokespersons said they knew nothing about the incident.
The Hamas website said it is investigating the cause of the explosion but blamed Israel. It stated, “Israeli occupation forces and its intelligence [sic] apparatuses conduct secret war against the Palestinian resistance factions’ recently Israeli occupation air force assassinated three Qassam leaders, Ismail Lubbad, Abdullah Lubbad and Mohammed al Dayah by the help of its spies in the Gaza Strip.
“Actually, Israeli occupation intelligence [sic] services push its collaborators to plant ground mines inside the training sites of the Palestinian resistance factions to cause a state of insecurity and fear in the Strip.”