Gunmen near Gaza-Egypt border
Photo: AP
Senior Hamas, Jihad terrorist indicted
Gaza resident Sari Halawa accused of dispatching terrorists who killed four IDF soldiers at Erez crossing, planning to set up West Bank terror cell
After three years of deadly terror activities, Sari Halawa of the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip was indicted Tuesday at the Beer Sheva Magistrates Court.
The indictment accuses Halawa, 26, of terror activities dating back to 2002 when he joined the Islamic Jihad, underwent military training and took part in shooting attacks against IDF soldiers. He is also accused of being an accomplice in plans to carry out suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians.
Halawa volunteered to blow himself up in Israel on behalf of the Islamic Jihad, but retracted when he was offered a commander’s position in the group’s military wing.
According to the indictment, Halawa recruited Rami al-Bik and dispatched him along with two other accomplices to the Erez crossing near Gaza, where they killed four IDF soldiers and injured four others.
Masterminded handful of Hamas attacks
IDF soldiers managed to kill the three infiltrators.
The State Prosecution also accuses Halawa of orchestrating a suicide bombing attack in the former settlement of Netzarim in the summer of 2003. Three soldiers were killed in the attack.
At the end of 2003 Halawa joined Hamas and participated in launching Qassam rockets at Israel and former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Halawa masterminded a handful of Hamas attacks against the IDF in the Gaza Strip, including an assault on a Merkava tank. Halawa and other Hamas members detonated a huge bomb planted under the tank, seriously injuring a number of soldiers.
Last summer, after the August disengagement, Halawa set off on a mission to cross into Israel through Egypt and from there to the West Bank, where he had planned to set up a terror cell. The Islamic Jihad instructed Halawa to kidnap soldiers who could be used as bargaining chips to compel Israel to release Palestinian security prisoners.
Halawa failed to cross into Israel and returned to the Gaza Strip where Hamas members convinced him to set off on the same trail. On December 12 he was arrested along the Egypt-Israel border in Rafah.
