Plot To Murder Israeli Pilots and Scientists Uncovered

by IsraeliLawStudent | August 28, 2008 at 08:26 am

423 views | 2 Recommendations | 14 comments

An Islamic Jihad cell plotting to assassinate Israeli pilots, scientists and university lecturers was exposed in a joint IDF, Shin Bet and police operation. The terror cell, comprised of three Palestinians and two Israeli Arabs, carried out extensive training and fundraising in preparation for the operation. Those involved in the operation have been taken into custody by Israel's security services.

The cell was comprised of three Palestinians and two Israeli Arabs from Shfaram. The group also planned to carry out a shooting attack against the IDF checkpoint near Beit Zeit, in the Ramallah area, and go after those suspected of collaborating with Israel.

The planning of the assassinations was still in the early stages.

The two Israeli Arab members worked on the fundraising front, trying to secure money for the purchase of weapons. The two attempted to contact the Islamic Jihad headquarters in Syria to this end. The cell did have some arms in its possession and had trained extensively ahead of its plan to carry out the Beit Zeit shooting attack.

The names of those arrested are:

1. Anis Saffouri – a 20-year-old resident of Shfaram, a communications student at the Bir Zeit University in Ramallah.

2. Hussam Khalil – a 19-year-old resident of Shfaram, an electrical engineering student in Jordan.

3. Mahmoud Bader – a 19-year-old resident of Beit Lakiyah, an Islamic Jihad activist at the Bir Zeit University.

4. Ibrahim Tamliya – a 25-year-old resident of Ramallah, considered a prominent Islamic Jihad activist

5. Ibrahim Hamed – a 26-year-old resident of the Kalandiya refugee camp, an Islamic Jihad activist

Anis Saffouri's father, Jamil Saffouri, is one of the suspects implicated in the lynching of Jewish terrorist Edan Nathan-Zada in Shfaram.

Hussam Khalil is the son of a prominent Balad operative, and Shfaram officials were surprised to hear his name connected to the fundamentalist Islamic Jihad. Both Balad and 'Sons of the Villages' are secular movements.

Connections to 'Al Manar' reporters
According to the details revealed in the investigation, Anis Saffouri relocated to Ramallah in 2006 to study in Birzeit. Saffouri, already a member of the Sons of the Village movement, developed ties to activists for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as personal and professional ties to reporters linked to the Hizbullah-affiliated 'Al-Manar' network.

Saffouri later became active for the ' Jamaat al-Islamiya' movement at Birzeit, and worked to raise funds to support the Islamic Jihad's military operations. He formed a cell with other activists belonging to the organization from the Ramallah region, and worked to recruit other Israeli Arabs to the cell.

Hussam Khalil was marked by Saffouri as the man who could help transfer funds from Jordan to Israel to help finance the cell's operations. Khalil traveled to Ramallah to meet Saffouri and another activist, expressed his willingness to help transfer the funds and was officially recruited to the Islamic Jihad.

Hussam confessed in his questioning that he was aware of Saffouri's intentions and understood that the money would be used for military operations.

The Shin Bet said the case exposes the cooperation between Israeli Arabs who study in the territories and terror operatives who live there. Saffouri and Khalil will be indicted at the Haifa District Court in the coming days on charges of grave national security offenses.

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Heritage

at 09:11 on August 28th, 2008

"An Islamic Jihad cell plotting to assassinate Israeli pilots, scientists and university lecturers was exposed in a joint IDF, Shin Bet and police operation."

Why can Israel maintain a policy of targeted killings and the those living under occupation not? Why can Israel kill and those living under occupation not?

19 Dec. 06 : High Court of Justice imposes limitations on Israel 's targeted-killing policy

On 13 December 2006, the High Court of Justice gave its decision on the petition filed in January 2002 by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and LAW against Israel 's policy of targeted killings, which the state has carried out officially since the beginning of the second intifada, in September 2000. According to B'Tselem's statistics, Israel 's targeted-killing attacks in the past six years have killed 339 Palestinians, 210 of them the target of the attack and 129 of them civilian bystanders.

René

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:31 on August 28th, 2008

Some of Israel's greatest fears, Israeli Arabs involved.

Heritage

at 09:54 on August 28th, 2008

Israeli Arabs are treated as 4th class citizens, is it really surprising that some would take action against the brutal 40 Occupation?

What would you do if Louisiana was occupied? Sit on your hands?

René

at 10:58 on August 28th, 2008

You must have missed it. Louisiana was occupied after Katrina, by more than the National Guard. But local New Orleans residents want the still 'occupying' National Guard to stay. The neighborhoods that they patrol are safer from crime, and the crime rate soars in the neighborhoods they cease to patrol.

joellerose

at 10:48 on August 28th, 2008

It's really an upside-down world when some people consider terrorists who set off bombs in crowded marketplaces within the sovereign country of Israel are considered the "good guys" There are Israeli Arabs who serve in the Knesset.

Heritage

at 11:12 on August 28th, 2008

Yes, we live in an upside-down world:

11,000 to one...

Jan 08

"To date, fourty five patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip."

"30 premature babies in Shiffa Hospital, who will die immediately if there is a power cut..."

What is the death toll now?

PCHR Calls On the International Community to Prevent a Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza

At approximately 20:00 on Sunday, January 20th, the Gaza Strip power plant ran out of fuel and shut down, plunging the Gaza Strip into darkness. The closure of the Gaza power plant, in addition to Israel's continuing tightened siege of the Gaza Strip, will have a catastrophic effect on the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who are already suffering chronic shortages of fuel, medicine and some basic food stuffs. The Director of Gaza's main Shiffa hospital describes the current situation as "Potentially disastrous."

Israel is manufacturing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip that is seriously deteriorating every aspect of civilian life. To date, fourty five patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip. According to the Director of Shiffa Hospital, Dr Hassan Khalaf, patient's lives continue to be at stake, including the lives of 30 premature babies in Shiffa Hospital, who will die immediately if there is a power cut at the hospital. Gaza's second major hospital, the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, has now suspended all major surgical operations.

Meanwhile, all borders from Gaza to the outside world remain sealed to Palestinians.

The Gaza Strip requires 230-250 megawatts of electricity a day to operate at full capacity. On Friday, January 18th, and again on Sunday, January 20th, the IOF prevented a vital daily delivery of fuel from passing through the Nahal Oz Crossing, including industrial diesel used to fuel the power plant. The power plant is now completely closed. This closure of Gaza's only power plant has drastically reduced electricity output across the Gaza Strip by 65 megawatts. Civilians across Gaza city and the central Gaza Strip are totally dependent on the power plant. The closure of the power plant will severely impact on civilian lives across the Gaza Strip. In addition to the dangerous shortage of electricity that threatens the lives of critically ill patients in all of Gaza's' hospitals, chronic shortages of petrol and diesel and gas for domestic use have led to panic buying before gas stations in Gaza are forced to close completely. Civilians are also suffering widespread shortages of bread, due to lack of electricity to power the ovens at bakeries across Gaza.

PCHR condemns the catastrophic humanitarian crisis that is being manufactured by the IOF as collective punishment to the entire population of the Gaza Strip, and calls upon the International Community to put immediate pressure on the Government of Israel to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The Centre appeals to the international community to act upon their legal and moral responsibilities to ensure the basic human rights of the citizens of the Gaza Strip are protected.

The Centre reiterates that Palestinian civilians are protected from collective punishment under international human rights law, and international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.

PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfil their legal and moral obligations under Article 1 of the Convention, to ensure Israel's respect for the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence practised by the international community has encouraged Israel to act as if it is above the law and encourages Israel to violate international human rights and humanitarian law.

René

at 11:09 on August 28th, 2008

Here's a report about how media and others continue 'Distorting Israeli Arab Reality', according to the report 11 Israeli Arabs serve in the Knesset.

Heritage

at 11:18 on August 28th, 2008

Yes, Rene, in India there are elected officials who are Dalits (Untouchables), the lowest caste in India. Does that mean that the average Dalits are still not treated as the lowest caste?

Heritage

at 11:26 on August 28th, 2008

Comprising roughly 18 percent of the country's population, Israeli Arabs like Kaadan pay taxes, vote in Israeli elections and speak Hebrew. Tired of being treated as a second-class citizen, Kaadan sued the state in 1995. On paper, he won. But in practice, Kaadan and many other Arabs are still waiting for Israel to uphold their basic human rights.

Israel has treated its Arab minority -- the descendants of the 150,000 Arabs who stayed put when Israel was established during the War of Independence in 1948 -- as the enemy within for decades, as a fifth column with links to the greater Arab world, bent on undermining the Jewish state. (Other Palestinians became refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and neighboring Arab countries.) Until 1966, Israeli Arabs were subjected to curfews, administrative detentions, land confiscations and employment restrictions under a military regime. Israel even required its Arabs to carry "movement licenses" whenever they left their villages

joellerose

at 11:26 on August 28th, 2008

When the Hamas and Fatah murderers stop trying to exterminate Israelis, the Israelis will stop shooting back. Ever since Oslo, no fair thinking person can have much sympathy for the so-called Palestinians.

Heritage

at 11:31 on August 28th, 2008

You neglected to mention Israel's brutal 41 year Occupation...

What would you do if your nation was occupied?

Israel's apartheid
Fed up with restrictions and discrimination, last month Israeli Arabs joined their Palestinian brethren in the battle against Israeli Jews.

Heritage

at 11:33 on August 28th, 2008

Josellerose wrote: no fair thinking person can have much sympathy for the so-called Palestinians.
Jan 08

"To date, fourty five patients have died as a direct result of Israeli Occupying Force (IOF) closure and siege of the Gaza Strip."

"30 premature babies in Shiffa Hospital, who will die immediately if there is a power cut..."

joellerose

at 11:50 on August 28th, 2008

While death and destruction is the only product of the so-called Palestinians who teach their children that Jews are less than pigs and drink the blood of Arab babies, the Israelis, within their liberal democracy, have produced scores of nobel prize winners and hundreds of miracle drugs, medical procedures and devices, computer breakthroughs and other benefits to mankind. I am well aware of the histories, and how far back it goes. The only history that has been relevant since 1947 is that Israel is a UN recognized sovereign country.

Red Mckinnon (not verified)

at 15:31 on August 28th, 2008

Moonwolf- it would be difficult for israel to have targeted palestinians 60 years ago considering the local arabs gained national aspirations much more recently.. The term palestinian referred to any locals (even jews). The jews have succeeded in producing a relatively modern western land thanks to sheer perseverance and dedication, and to posit that israel cares more about persecuting neighbouring arabs than building it's own state ignores the reality for the recent depiction of the palestinians as the underdogs. When hamas begins to even speak of peace and israel refuses to listen- at that point some truth might be found in your claims.