The Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) and the IDF have arrested a “Global Jihad” terrorist from Gaza who was involved in terror attacks against the IDF during the Protective Edge campaign in 2014, and in earlier terror acts.
The terrorist, – Iham Abu Nahel, aged 27 – was arrested in late July when he tried to leave Gaza to work as a teacher in Qatar, as part of a project for employing Gazan teachers.
Abu Nahel is a member of an Islamist faction identified with ISIS called “The Oneness of God,” which is part of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Gaza.
Abu Nahel told interrogators that he started his terror career in the Hamas's armed wing, where he received training in weapons, camouflage and observation, and took part in tunnel digging.
He later transferred to the PRC. In 2010, this organization's leaders selected him for carrying out a suicide attack against Israeli targets on the Israel-Egypt border. He underwent special training for this mission and left Gaza for Sinai through a tunnel, in order to take part in an attack on an Israeli bus near Eilat. This plan did not work out for various reasons.
In 2014, he joined The Oneness of God,” a radical salafist wing of the PRC, and continued to take part in terror activities in that organization.
Abu Nahel told the Shin Bet that during Operation Protective Edge, Hamas embedded him in its “Nuhba” special forces unit in northern Gaza, despite his salafist identification. Together with the Nuhba forces, he took part in planting bombs and setting them off against IDF forces. To this end, the terrorists made use of the home of a medical surgeon whom Hamas trusted.
The ISA noted that Abu Nahel's interrogation proves yet again how Hamas cynically manipulates Israels sensitivity to humanitarian needs.
Abu Nahel was charged on August 30 at the Be'er Sheva District Court with 12 different counts, including contact with a foreign agent, membership and activity in an illegal organization, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.