An Islamic Jihad terrorist plot to kidnap an Israeli was foiled recently in a joint operation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Police.
Had the plan succeeded, Murad Hassan Ali-Hassan, 25, would have grabbed his victim from home in the lower Galilee village of Avtalion – making him the next ‘Gilad Shalit.’
Ali-Hassan, a member of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror organization, was jailed in 2008 and 2009 for plotting to stab an IDF soldier at a security checkpoint. He confessed to the plot under questioning after his arrest.
“On April 19, 2014, he attempted to enter a house in Avtalion near Karmiel, armed with a knife, in order to kidnap one of the home’s residents for the purpose of negotiating the release of Palestinian [security] prisoners. The plot failed after he was chased away from the area by the home’s residents,” the Shin Bet said in its statement.
The suspect was formally charged Thursday in Haifa District Court with attempted kidnapping for murder or blackmail, breaking and entering, aggravated assault, armed offenses and deliberately endangering human life on a transportation route.
Ali-Hassan also “confessed during questioning by the Shin Bet to carrying out a number of [prior] attempted terror attacks in the Misgav Region in April 2014, including an attempted abduction,” the agency said.
In addition, he confessed to an attempt to torch a local forest with a firebomb (Molotov cocktail) and to hurling firebombs at vehicles with Israeli license plates traveling along Route 7955, near the Avtalion-Maslahit junction and near Kibbutz Eshbal. No one was injured in either of the incidents.
Although he acted alone, officials pointed to the need to complete construction of the security barrier that separates PA territory from the rest of Israel and which has prevented terrorists from infiltrating to commit countless suicide bombings.
Since 2012, Palestinian Authority Arabs who entered pre-1967 areas of the country illegally have managed to bomb a bus in Tel Aviv and murdered two IDF soldiers.