It was released for publication Tuesday evening that wanted terrorist Khaled Amsheh, 43, was apprehended in an IDF operation in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, last month. Amsheh, a member of the Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, was responsible for the 2004 shooting death of reservist Sgt. Maj. Amir Zimmerman, 25, at the Erez Crossing, as well as for involvement in many other terrorist activities.
Amsheh's arrest apparently put a halt to his initiative for another attack in the area of the crossing, which links the Gaza Strip to pre-1967 Israel. In the period before his arrest, Amsheh had been suggesting to members of his militia that they dig a tunnel from the former Erez Industrial Zone, abandoned as a part of the Gaza Disengagement Plan, to the Erez Crossing.
During his interrogation by agents of the General Security Services (GSS), Amsheh confessed to involvement in attempts to send suicide bombers into Israeli civilian areas, as well as to the recruitment and training of suicide bombers for attacks on IDF forces. He admitted that he had even trained his own son for such a suicide mission. In addition, Amsheh told GSS investigators that he had been involved in firing rockets from Gaza into Jewish towns in the western Negev.
It was during his interrogation that facts came to light regarding Amsheh's part in the fatal 2004 shooting attack at the Erez Crossing.
In February of that year, the military received information that terrorists were planning to infiltrate the Erez Industrial Zone in order to reach Jewish civilian targets deeper inside pre-1967 Israel, possibly on a nearby highway. The Erez area was put on high alert on February 25 as a result of the information and the industrial zone was closed off the next morning. When IDF forces began to carry out searches of the area, one of the units encountered two armed Fatah terrorists. In the ensuing gun battle, Sgt. Maj. Zimmerman was killed and two other soldiers were injured before the enemy gunmen were eliminated.
Amsheh's arrest apparently put a halt to his initiative for another attack in the area of the crossing, which links the Gaza Strip to pre-1967 Israel. In the period before his arrest, Amsheh had been suggesting to members of his militia that they dig a tunnel from the former Erez Industrial Zone, abandoned as a part of the Gaza Disengagement Plan, to the Erez Crossing.
During his interrogation by agents of the General Security Services (GSS), Amsheh confessed to involvement in attempts to send suicide bombers into Israeli civilian areas, as well as to the recruitment and training of suicide bombers for attacks on IDF forces. He admitted that he had even trained his own son for such a suicide mission. In addition, Amsheh told GSS investigators that he had been involved in firing rockets from Gaza into Jewish towns in the western Negev.
It was during his interrogation that facts came to light regarding Amsheh's part in the fatal 2004 shooting attack at the Erez Crossing.
In February of that year, the military received information that terrorists were planning to infiltrate the Erez Industrial Zone in order to reach Jewish civilian targets deeper inside pre-1967 Israel, possibly on a nearby highway. The Erez area was put on high alert on February 25 as a result of the information and the industrial zone was closed off the next morning. When IDF forces began to carry out searches of the area, one of the units encountered two armed Fatah terrorists. In the ensuing gun battle, Sgt. Maj. Zimmerman was killed and two other soldiers were injured before the enemy gunmen were eliminated.