Israel arrests Islamic State-affiliated Gaza jihadist
In joint operation by Shin Bet and IDF, terror suspect posing as teacher nabbed en route from Strip to Qatar
A Gaza man accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli soldiers during last summer’s war in the Strip has been arrested in a joint operation by the Shin Bet security service, the IDF and the Israel Police, Israeli officials revealed Sunday.
According to a statement from the Shin Bet security service, Ihab Saed Abd Alrahman Abu Naghal, 27, was arrested in July while trying to make his way from Gaza to Qatar pretending to be a teacher attending a teachers’ conference.
Israeli officials accuse Abu Naghal of being part of the Popular Resistance Committees, a salafist terror group that has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group.
According to the release, Abu Naghal said he was trained as a suicide bomber and was sent on a mission to blow up a bus at the Israel-Egypt border near Eilat in 2014, but was unsuccessful.
The IDF said in a statement that the suspect “began in the military branch of Hamas in which he took an active part in diverse trainings including weaponry, camouflage, observation techniques and tunnel building.”
He then joined the PRC and in 2014 became a member of “ARABIC,” an even more extremist Salafi faction within the group, according to the IDF.
During interrogation, he is said to have admitted to fighting alongside Hamas against Israeli soldiers last summer in northern Gaza, including planting and detonating IEDs against Israeli forces.
He was indicted on August 30 on 12 counts, including attempted murder and “contact with a foreign agent.”
“The investigation of Abu Naghal proves, once again, how Hamas tries to cynically take advantage of Israeli sensitivities to humanitarian needs,” the Shin Bet said in its statement, apparently referring to Israeli authorities allowing Gazans to travel.