Senior PFLP operative arrested in Nablus

A senior PFLP operative was arrested in a joint IDF-Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) operation in Nablus, the army announced Tuesday.

IDF troops during an operation in Nablus [archive - illustrative].
Photo: AP [file]

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During his interrogation, the man, Ibrahim Sayid Ibrahim Salem, 23, admitted to being involved in a shooting attack against IDF troops on September 18th, 2007, during which an IDF soldier, Staff Sergeant Ben-Zion Haneman, was killed.

He also confessed to his involvement in numerous other shooting attacks and to detonating explosive devices and a car bomb next to IDF troops in the Nablus area in October 2006.

Salem further told his interrogators that he, along with other PFLP operatives, was involved in the manufacture of explosives at a hidden location in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp.

Salem's investigation, along with those of other PFLP and Hamas operatives, confirmed that these explosives were used for the manufacturing bombs for attacks on against IDF soldiers, sometimes with the use of cellular technology, the army said.

It also emerged from the investigation that Salem was involved in recruiting suicide bombers for the PFLP and Hamas in Nablus. The planned suicide attacks were never carried out, the IDF said.

Salem was also involved in planning a terror attack organized by Hamas operative Nihad Shakirat. Shakirat, who planned to use a suicide bomber recruited by Salem, was killed during an IDF operation on Yom Kippur, 2007. The terror attack was foiled due to a joint IDF-Shin Bet operation.