Posted on 05/02/16
| News Source: Times of Israel
An alleged Hamas member was charged with a litany of offenses in Israeli court Sunday, including planning to kill soldiers by planting bombs and shooting rockets at Israeli troops patrolling the Gaza frontier.
The 24-year-old man, named in Beersheba District Court filings as Medhat Abu Sneima, was indicted on 18 different charges, all relating to his time as an operative for the Hamas terror group which rules the Gaza Strip.
Charges included attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, making contact with a foreign agent, passing information to an enemy with intent to harm state security, taking part in illegal military training and joining and acting as part of an illegal organization.
He was captured by Shin Bet security service agents on the Gaza border, though it was not clear when that took place.
Israeli prosecutors accused Abu Sneima of shooting rockets and mortars at an Israeli military position and the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza in 2012, along with other Hamas fighters. According to the court filings, nobody was hurt in either incident.
Abu Sneima was also charged with planting roadside bombs to target Israeli patrols along the Gaza border, and prosecutors accused him of taking part in weapons training with Hamas, including learning how to be a sniper.
“The suspect, along with others, conducted surveillance on army positions near the Gaza border, tracked troop movement and planted IEDs against IDF jeeps, in order to kill IDF soldiers,” the charge sheet read. “Only by a miracle was nobody hurt.”
According to prosecutors, Abu Sneima joined Hamas in 2007, and in 2014 paid $7,000 to buy partial ownership in a smuggling tunnel between Gaza and Egypt, which was later destroyed by Egyptian authorities.
A hearing on continuing Abu Sneima’s detention in Israeli prison is slated for Monday.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas on the indictment.
Tensions in the south flared recently following Israel’s announcement it had discovered a tunnel emanating from Gaza, following reports that Hamas had restarted building attack tunnels under the Israel-Gaza border.