Israel charges Islamic Jihad’s ‘computer administrator’

The Israel Police and Shin Bet security service have arrested a Gaza resident suspected as the “computer administrator” of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, police spokeswoman Luba Samri says.

A statement from Samri describes the suspect as an “electronics engineer” in his 20s from the Gaza Strip, and says he has been indicted today on charges of “espionage, conspiracy to convey information to an enemy, hacking computer material and more.”

The man, who also held the position of chairman of the “Palestinian talents society,” was arrested on February 23 while en route to a meeting with young Palestinian candidates on a television singing contest, the statement says.

Police didn’t say when or how he was arrested.

He was recruited by Islamic Jihad in 2001 while working as a radio broadcaster. At the same time, police allege, “he carried out tasks that he received from his handlers, including coding a computer program that enabled the viewing of road cameras, hacking into the computers of the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza, and more.”