Bomber planned to hit reactor
Cleared for publication: Gaza Strip resident indicted over plans to target nuclear reactor in Dimona, as well as southern town of Ashkelon. Suspect also planned simultaneous suicide bombings across Israel
Salah was captured about two weeks ago in possession of an explosive belt near an Israeli community in the western Negev. At the time of his arrest, he was apparently planning to carry out another attack.
Salah is facing 14 charges, including attempted murder, armed infiltration, membership in a terror group, conspiring to carry out a crime, and receiving banned military training. According to the indictment, he was a party to numerous terror attack plans, including one where he was supposed to blow himself up at the Dimona reactor. Another plan called for Salah and other suicide bombers to detonate themselves simultaneously in several Israeli cities.
The indictment charges Salah formed tied with the Popular Front and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The terror groups provided him with training and equipped him with weapons and an explosive belt. In one case, he attempted to infiltrate Israel in order to blow himself up at a bus stop or another crowded venue in the Ashkelon region.
In his infiltration attempts, Salah enlisted the assistance of Israeli and Egyptian collaborators.
Terror involvement at 17
According to the charges, 24 hours before being caught, Salah arrived in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza wearing an explosives belt.
He was met by two terror group members and a contact man, whose job was to aid Salah in crossing the border and detonating the explosives.
Salah waited with his three abettors for a person on the Israeli side who was supposed to receive them, but the individual failed to show, and the terrorists returned back home.
Only the next day was communication established with the individual on the Israeli side, and at 4:00 a.m. Salah left Gaza in the direction of Israel. He cut the border fence and entered the country but was eventually captured in the Nir Am region.
Salah's record shows that this was not his first involvement in terrorist activity. In 2000, when he was just 17, he began speaking to terrorist organizations in order to target IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians.
In the last five years, he attempted to cross the border from Gaza into Israel a number of times while strapped with an explosive belt, but was unable to do so. He also tried to enter Israel through the Egyptian border, but Egyptian efforts prevented him from crossing.
According to the indictment, Salah was also involved in attempts to target IDF soldiers in Gaza.
Salah wrote out a will, wore military cloths, and read his will before a video camera while armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, RPG launcher, and grenades.
At the end of 2003, the accused headed out, for five nights, to the Karni crossing armed with two grenades, where he spied on the movements of IDF soldiers and gathered information in order to carry out shooting attacks. He did not go through with the attack after Palestinian Authority officials warned him not to go through with his plans.
