Israel Matzav

Hamas plans to abduct and murder Israelis and hold their bodies for ransom

Hamas is planning to murder Israelis, take their bodies and then 'negotiate' their return to Israel.

The sources said Hamas activists believe they cannot keep Israeli hostages out of the Shin Bet and Palestinian Authority's reach for long. So they plan to kill them, abduct and bury the bodies, then negotiate returning them to Israel.

Hamas headquarters in Damascus and Gaza are pressuring organization cells in the West Bank to kill Israelis and abduct their bodies, in view of the effect Gilad Shalit's abduction has had on Israeli public opinion. Another reason for the pressure is the failure of Shalit's abduction to bring the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the sources told Haaretz.

Hamas planned similar attacks in the Ramallah area in the middle of the last decade. In the past year, attempting to rebuild the organization's military networks that were damaged during the second intifada, it has returned to this line of action.

The Palestinian Authority and Israel have recently captured in the Ramallah region alone about five cells planning to kill Israelis and abduct their bodies.

And if we'd traded 1,000 terrorists for Shalit, I'm sure they would not have dreamed of doing this.

/sarc.

But remember the Moreno terror attack back in September? Well get a load of this:

On September 1, a day after a Hamas cell murdered four Israelis near the Beit Hagai settlement in the Hebron area, another cell opened fire at an Israeli couple from Ma'aleh Efraim in a car on the road to the Rimonim settlement east of Ramallah. The terrorists overtook Moshe and Shira Moreno's car and opened fire at them.

At this stage their plan went wrong. The AK-47 ("Kalashnikov" ) rifle the attackers were using jammed and the couple, although injured, jumped out of the car and rolled down the wadi beside the road. The terrorists stopped their car and approached the Israeli vehicle. When they saw it was empty they took a bag containing documents from the car and fled. The couple hid in the wadi and were saved by the darkness. The husband was moderately injured and his wife lightly injured.

The security services and police figured out what vehicle the militants were driving from findings left on the road. About 24 hours later the Palestinian defense forces arrested the cell members in Ramallah. Three of them are still imprisoned in the city and the PA apparently intends to put them on trial, although it is not clear on what charges.

The interrogated militants said they had intended to kill their targets and abduct the bodies. They had dug graves in advance near their home village of Silwad east of Ramallah, they reportedly said.

Moshe Moreno told Haaretz this week: "I didn't think at that moment when we jumped out of the car. It was instinctive. I was a combat soldier, but I don't know why I decided to jump. We hid in the wadi. The terrorists were so surprised when they couldn't find us in the car that they ran away.

"We lay in the wadi for 18 minutes until Magen David Adom came. We heard the paramedics speaking in Hebrew and came out of hiding. Physically we've recovered, but not emotionally. We live in fear. The IDF must arrest those terrorists. You can't count on the Palestinians to keep them in jail," he said.

The picture at the top is of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon HY"D (May God avenge their blood), two IDF soldiers who were kidnapped and murdered in 1989 and whose bodies were found much later.

Their murderer was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Labels: Avi Sasportas, Hamas, Ilan Sa'adon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Palestinian terrorism, Rabbi Moshe Moreno

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:39 AM