The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and IDF have arrested three Palestinian Authority terrorists who were plotting to kidnap an Israeli soldier and to demand that Israel release terrorist prisoners in exchange for them.
The arrests were carried out in early January but the case was not cleared for publication until now.
The IDF says the terror cell's activity proves yet again that terror organizations in general - and Hamas in particular - are highly motivated to carry out kidnappings in order to bring about the release of terrorist convicts.
The head of the arrested terror squad is Ibrahim Mousa Zaharan, 31, a Hamas terrorist from the village of Bidu northwest of Jerusalem. He was incarcerated from 2006 to 2010 for planning terror attacks, including abductions. Upon his release last December he began planning a new kidnapping.
The second member of the cell is Nizam Shnina, originally from Gaza, who arrived in Ramallah in 2001, where he served as a member of the Palestinian Authority "police." In 2006 he was arrested for his part in a terror cell that planned shooting attacks and abductions of Israelis. He served jail time until February 2010. During this period, he met Zaharan and joined Hamas.
The third terrorist, Jihad Dib Al-Shami, 34, is also originally from Gaza. He crossed over illegally into Judea and Samaria in 2005 and joined Hamas. He was arrested in 2008, and met Zaharan in jail.
Zaharan and Al-Shami planned to buy a plot of land near Ramallah and build a house with an underground room or tunnel beneath it. They planned to hold a kidnapped soldier underground, while one of them lived above ground. They also plotted to buy a car with Israel license plates, for use in the abduction.
Charges against the three were filed about a month ago by the Military Prosecution.