The IDF announced on Wednesday afternoon, before the Yom Kippur holiday began, that soldiers and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) questioned the boy on Monday after several Arab terrorists were arrested in the Shechem area.



Wanted Tanzim terrorist Rabi'ah Abu Alil originally tried to employ the boy as a suicide bomber after he and his father quarreled over money. The boy refused, and was taken to an apartment by Abu Alil and another wanted Arab terrorist, Jamal Tirawi. Tirawi is also a high ranking Palestinian Authority (PA) intelligence officer, the IDF said.



"Despite the youth's pleas that he be released to his home and left alone, Tirawi and Abu Alil threatened him that if he did not cooperate, they would kill him and distribute a communique claiming he had been collaborating with the Israeli army," the IDF announcement stated. Terrorists photographed the boy wearing a vest and holding a rifle and a copy of the Koran.



The terrorists finally released the youth without harming him. The Associated Press reported that Tirawai responded to the charges by saying that "the Israelis are liars."



"This is not an isolated case," an IDF spokesman said. "Since the beginning of 2005, the number of minors who have been drafted by the different organizations to carry out terror attacks and attacks against Israeli military targets has risen dramatically."



The IDF also announced Wednesday afternoon that security forces arrested Hamas terrorist Ibarahim Ginat of Hevron on Monday, after an eight-year search. He is the last holdout of the "Tzurif" gang which killed three Israelis in an attack on the Apropos Cafe in Tel Aviv in 1997.



Ginat also is charged with other attacks, including the murder of soldier Sharon Edri the previous year, and four shooting attacks in 1995-1996 in the Gush Etzion area in which seven Israelis were murdered and others injured.



Also arrested was Haitham Battat, a Hamas terrorist suspected of involvement in a suicide bombing in Be'er Sheva in May. He surrendered after his mother urged him to give up following a gunfight. He is from the town of Dahariya, in the southern Hevron hills and on the main road to Be'er Sheva.