The Judea Military Court at the Ofer Camp on Tuesday extended by six days the arrest of Islamic Jihad terrorist Basa'am Asadi, who was arrested on August 1.
Asadi is the Islamic Jihad commander in Judea and Samaria. He was arrested in Jenin by Border Police and IDF forces, and it was his arrest that prompted the Islamic Jihad terror group to threaten to carry out an attack on Israelis near the Gaza border, leading Israel to close roads and transportation in the area. When the tensions and threats continued, Israel began Operation Breaking Dawn to end the threat. .
The military prosecutor requested to extend Asadi's arrest by nine days, noting that there are additional people involved who were arrested as part of the investigation. Asadi's attorney requested that he be released to house arrest.
Asadi, 62, began working with Islamic Jihad in 1984. He is one of the central and influential figures in Islamic Jihad, and has been arrested seven times for planning terror attacks, including during the Second Intifada twenty years ago.
According to Channel 13 News, Asadi served a lengthy prison sentence in Israel. In 2002, two of his sons, part of the Islamic Jihad's military wing, were killed in clashes with the IDF.
Following Asadi's arrest, the Shabak (Israel Security Agency) said that Asadi had recently "worked with extra energy to rehabilitate the activities of Islamic Jihad, and as part of this he stood behind the creation of a significant military force for the organization in Samaria in general and in Jenin in particular, and his presence was a significant cause of the organization's operatives on the ground becoming more extreme."