In a joint Border Police and GSS (Shabak) mission, security forces arrested Nazer Ibrahim Hasin Abayat, a wanted senior Tanzim operative in Halhoul, located north of Hevron. Abayat was armed with a handgun and ammunition clip. Two other wanted Palestinian terrorists were arrested at the same time.
Abayat, 33, a resident of Bethlehem, had been wanted by security forces for six years, for his involvement in numerous shooting attacks, some of them murderous. The attacks were carried out in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Gilo and Har Homa, and in the Bethlehem area.
One of the top wanted Tanzim operatives in Bethlehem, Abayat had also been dealing in weaponry, and maintained close contact with senior wanted terrorists.
Among the numerous attacks in which he was involved were:
- The killing of IDF soldier Sgt. Max Hazan on October 2, 2000 in a sniper shooting attack near the village of Beit Sahur, east of Bethlehem.
- The killing of two IDF soldiers, Lt. David Cohen and Sgt. Shlomo Adashina, in the area of Al-Hader, west of Bethlehem, on November 1, 2000. Four additional soldiers were wounded in the shooting attack.
- The murder of civilian Avi Boaz, 72, on January 15, 2002 in the village of Beit Jala, northwest of Bethlehem. An American-Israeli, Boaz was kidnapped at a PA checkpoint, then killed execution-style.
- The killing of police officer Moshe Dayan on March 2, 2002. Dayan was ambushed and shot to death by Abayat and his cell while driving his motorbike near the Marsaba Monastery, east of Bethlehem.
In other security news, an Arab driver who burst through an IDF checkpoint south of Hevron was lightly hurt when soldiers shot at his car. He drove through the checkpoint despite the soldiers' orders to stop. The soldiers then shot in the air, and when he continued driving, shot at the car.
It was reported today that Israel's Navy thwarted last week the smuggling of over 500 kilograms of TNT explosives into the Gaza Strip. The successful mission took place on Independence Day.