In a precision operation executed last month in Gaza, Israeli soldiers and secret service operatives captured a member of the terrorist cell that kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit in June of 2006. The operation took place on June 9 in Rafiah, on the Egyptian border with southern Gaza. Military censorship of the capture in Gaza was lifted on Friday, July 13.
The captured terrorist, Muhammad Salameh Abed Soufi, 30, is a resident of Rafiah and a member of Hamas. He also joined the Public Resistance Committees (PRC), which is a conglomerate representing various terror groups in Gaza. The PRC initially claimed responsibility for the attack in which Shalit was taken captive.
During his interrogation by Israeli security services, Soufi confessed to his involvement in numerous terrorist attacks, including the abduction of Gilad Shalit. Soufi said that he 
Soufi confessed to his involvement in numerous terrorist attacks.
assisted the gunmen who carried out the kidnapping and documented the operation on film.
On June 25, 2006, a Palestinian Authority terrorist cell carried out an attack on the Kerem Shalom IDF base just outside the Gaza region. In that raid, two IDF soldiers were killed, a third was injured, and Cpl. Shalit was taken captive.
Soufi was a party to many attacks on Israeli civilian and military targets in the past few years, including a fatal infiltration in 2002. In that incident, several PA gunmen entered the "Africa" military outpost near Kerem Shalom, killed four IDF soldiers and injured two others. In addition, IDF spokespersons reported that Soufi was involved in rocket attacks on Jewish towns in the western Negev, as well as in bombing attacks that injured IDF soldiers.