Internal Gaza security foils attempt to locate Shalit

PIC

[ 31/12/2009 - 11:18 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The internal security apparatus in the Gaza Strip has revealed that an attempt by the Israeli Shabak security to locate the whereabouts of Israeli captured soldier Gilad Shalit was foiled.

The apparatus said that the scheme planned the abduction of one of the commanders of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in order to extract information leading to the location where Shalit is being held in the Gaza Strip.

It charged a number of former security men, loyal to the Fatah faction, of helping the Shabak in gathering information on Shalit's whereabouts and holding contacts with the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) through security coordination over this matter.

Abu Abdullah, the head of the apparatus, said in a statement published on the interior ministry's website on Thursday that one of the targets of the latest war on Gaza was locating Shalit.

He explained that the plan was designed by a number of agents who rented a house in south of the Strip and prepared a careful ambush to kidnap the Qassam commander then hand him to the IOA, however, the scheme was foiled.

Meanwhile, the prisoners' center for studies said that relatives of prisoners were concerned over their sons in IOA jails with the advent of the winter season and the shortage in clothes, covers and shoes in addition to banning relatives of Gaza prisoners from visiting them.

It said that the relatives were also worried over the reported spread of flu among those prisoners amidst Israeli medical neglect and crowded cells.

Ra'fat Hamduna, the head of the center, asked all human rights groups and the Red Cross to pressure the IOA into allowing visits and entry of clothes, shoes and covers in addition to following up the case of sick detainees.

He accused the Israeli prisons authority of discrimination, explaining that it provides lesser crammed cells for its homicide convicts and allows regular visits and medical treatment for them while the contrary is provided for Palestinian detainees.

Press TV   

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:25:38 GMT

Hamas says it has foiled an attempt by Israeli agents who were trying to collect information on where Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is being held.

The head of Hamas' internal security service, Abu Abdullah, said the Shin Bet security service tried to gather intelligence through a cell of agents from the rival Fatah party, who once operated in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Abdullah said that the Fatah operatives had rented a house and cars in eastern Gaza City and planned to kidnap a senior member of Hamas' military wing, the Izz a-Din a-Qassam Brigade, in order to transfer him to Israel.

"The cell's scheme was foiled at the last minute. They had a ready plan of action and it was very similar to the kidnapping of Muhawesh al-Kadi," Abu Abdullah added, recalling a senior Hamas official who was reportedly kidnapped by Israeli forces near his home in Rafah.

The report comes amid efforts by the Islamic movement to free four senior resistance figures held in Israeli prisons in exchange for Shalit. The German-mediated prisoner exchange negotiations have been at loggerheads over Tel Aviv's refusal to free the "heavyweight" Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has recently offered to release the men "Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Sa'adat, Ibrahim Hamad and Abdullah Barghouti," on condition that the four be deported to the Gaza Strip or a third country.

Hamas on Tuesday dismissed media reports that it had turned down the Israeli proposal, stressing that the Palestinian resistance movement is still debating the issue.

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