Hamas terrorist (Archive)
Photo: Reuters
Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah
Photo: Beilinson Hospital
'Hesitant terrorist' going to jail
At last moment, Arab Israeli stopped short of carrying out attack at Tel Aviv-area hospital
The Samaria military court has sentenced Ali Abed, a 25-year old Israeli who resides in Qalqilya, to five and a half years in prison for attempting to detonate a car full of explosives near Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah.
Abed arrived at the hospital in a car laden with hundreds of kilograms of explosives on three separate occasions during 2007. However, he turned back every time after changing his mind.
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Abed, who was sent on what might have been one of the largest suicide attacks to occur in Israel, told the court about the pressures exerted on him while the attack was in its planning stages.
He was enlisted by Hamas in August 2006, and in the following months terror group operatives persuaded him to carry out an attack in Israel. Noteably, Abed's Israeli ID enables him to move freely through the country's borders.
After looking into potential locations for an attack in the Tel Aviv arae, Abed was given a car loaded with three explosive devices and a large quantity of steel screws.
Before departing on his mission, Abed was filmed wearing a Hamas banner on his head and reading out his will. On March 8, he drove the car into Israel for the first time and stopped at a crowded bus stop near the hospital. However, he decided to return without detonating the explosives. "I didn't want to kill children," he told investigators.
Hamas operatives then persuaded Abed to make another attempt, and on March 11 he drove to Jaffa. After neglecting to find a suitable location he returned to Beilinson Hospital and got as far as opening the lid to the detonation button, but changed his mind before pressing it.
The next day he returned to the same spot after further persuasion, but again decided not to detonate the car. He told his superiors that "stormy weather" had stopped him.
A few days later the car exploded in Qalqilya under unknown circumstances. He claimed it had been "hit by lightning."
Abed told judges Hamas pressured him to carry out the attack, but that he had not been convinced it was necessary to do so. "Their talk was like a shot of anesthesia. They play with a man's soul and mind," he said in court.
The military judges were convinced Abed regretted his actions and did not want to take human life, and sentenced him to five and a half years in prison. The legal proceedings against his superiors have not yet been completed.
