Israel’s Shin Bet security agency announced on Wednesday the arrest of a Hamas-trained explosives expert in May who had infiltrated Israel under humanitarian pretenses. The bomb-maker has already been indicted by a military court.
According to the Shin Bet, Fadi Abu Alsabah, 35, a resident of Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip, was trained for more than a year to establish a bomb-making factory in Judea and Samaria. He entered Israel on a medical permit and was arrested in the city of Taybeh on May 18.
He was allegedly recruited by Hamas’s military wing in July 2018. He is said to have undergone intensive training not only in bomb-making skills, but also in how to withstand questioning by border patrol and Shin Bet agents.
According to the Shin Bet, Alsabah was recruited by Ashraf Sabah, a 37-year-old Hamas operative who was released from Israeli prison in 2015 after serving a 12-year sentence for involvement in a bomb attack on an Israel Defense Forces’ patrol on the Gaza border and for planning additional attacks inside Israel.
The Shin Bet also said that in recent months that it had uncovered several other Hamas cells in Judea and Samaria. According to the agency, these cells had planned to carry out suicide-bombings and shooting attacks on Israeli targets.
“We again see that Hamas is choosing to exploit the humanitarian permits given by Israel … to advance its hostile activities in Israel and in Judea and Samaria,” said a senior Shin Bet official.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
