IDF soldiers have arrested senior terrorist Mahmoud Rashad abu-Kashek, security officials announced Friday. Kashek was detained overnight in a covert operation in central Shechem.
Kashek is affiliated with Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. He is accused of responsibility for a shooting in Yitzhar, in March 2001, in which security captain Gilad Zar was seriously wounded, as well as several additional shootings. Zar, the namesake of the Gilad Farm outpost in Samaria, was killed in another attack two months later.
Kashek also murdered a resident of Shechem who he suspected of cooperation with Israel, military officials say.
Residents of Shechem told Israeli media that Kashek was among hundreds of Fatah terrorists who were to be pardoned as one of the “good-will gestures” made by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. However, Kashek refused to spend three months in a PA prison, as stipulated by Israel, and therefore his name remained on Israel's “wanted list, they explained.
Arab Woman Attempts Attack in Jerusalem
An Arab woman was arrested in central Jerusalem on Thursday after attempting to steal a weapon from a guard. The woman was walking with a young child at the time.
The guard overpowered the woman, and she was taken in for questioning.