A delegation of Hamas officials has arrived in Turkey to attend the annual convention of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development AK Party.
Among those accompanying Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal is Jihad Ya’amar.
It was Ya’amar who drove the car for the terror cell that abducted and murdered IDF Sergeant Nachshon Wachsman, age 19, in 1994. Wachsman, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was a member of an elite commando unit in the Golani Brigade.
The soldier set out at night from his Jerusalem home on October 8, 1994 after the end of the Sabbath and was picked up hitchhiking at the Bnai Atarot junction by a car of Hamas operatives wearing yarmulkas. Israeli intelligence found out they had a Tanach (Bible) and siddur (Hebrew prayerbook) on the dashboard, and Chassidic music playing at the time.
Two days later, a video was released showing Wachsman tied up, and saying that Hamas had abducted him. He also said they were demanding the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and 200 others from Israeli prisons and would execute him within the week if the demands were not met.
Meanwhile, the IDF had captured Jihad Ya’amar, who was subsequently convicted of Wachsman’s murder after the young officer was executed by his captors.
Ya’amar was freed in October 2011 in exchange for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas in 2006 and held captive for five years in Gaza.
Hamas terror commander Mohammed Deif has stated that he was the commander of the operation to abduct Wachsman in Oct. 1994.