Sayeret
09-12-2004, 03:18 PM
Six Egyptians indicted for terror plan
By YAAKOV KATZ
Six Egyptian students were indicted in the Beersheba District Court on Sunday for allegedly infiltrating into Israel, planning to kidnap IDF soldiers and negotiate their return in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, take control of a military tank and rob a bank.
The six, students from Cairo, ranging in age from 25 to 30, were caught by Border Policemen three weeks ago near the southern town of Nitzana along the Egyptian-Israeli border, equipped with knives and reconnaissance equipment.
According to the charge sheet, five of the defendants have been holding military training exercises for the past several years with the aim of perpetrating anti-Israel attacks. The five, police said, worked independently and are not affiliated with other terror organizations.
Between 2001 and 2004, the group, on several occasions, traveled to the Israeli border in order to infiltrate but for different reasons gave up and returned to Cairo. The charge sheet further states that the six planned to rob a bank in Mitzpeh Ramon in order to fund their terrorist activities in the country.
On August 25, close to midnight, the six were spotted by a Border Police patrol moving along the border with Egypt. The force opened chase and caught the six some three kilometers inside Israel wearing black clothes and carrying knives, binoculars, communication devices, flashlights and maps of Israel.
"We spotted the six infiltrators, opened chase and we caught them all," Chief of Border Police in the Ramon region, Asst.-Cmdr. Roni Ohana, who was in charge of the force, which captured the infiltrators, said. "They wanted to kidnap soldiers, bring them back into Egypt and negotiate their return in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisoners."
According to the charge sheet, the six met during mutual studies in Cairo. The terror group was also initially larger. but other members dropped out over the years.
Ohana said that his soldiers did an excellent job but warned that this attempt by terror organizations to enter Israel via the border with Egypt is not an isolated incident, and that this was not the first infiltration incident from Egypt that his soldiers were involved in.
"About a year and a half ago a soldier was killed by a terror cell that came to the Egyptian border and fired shots into Israel," he said. "This incident unfortunately reinforces the assessment that terror organizations are trying to infiltrate into Israel and carry out terror attacks via this border of peace."
Ohana said that terror organizations and drugs and weapons smugglers have copied their activities to the Israeli-Egyptian border "due to the intense IDF clampdown on the Palestinian town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip and since there is no fence for 320 kilometers along the border."
Last week, the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's counter-terrorism adviser issued a warning calling on Israelis to refrain from visiting Sinai and telling those there to leave. "Specific, concrete information of plans by terrorists to launch attacks in the near future against Israelis vacationing in Sinai have been received," security officials said.
By YAAKOV KATZ
Six Egyptian students were indicted in the Beersheba District Court on Sunday for allegedly infiltrating into Israel, planning to kidnap IDF soldiers and negotiate their return in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, take control of a military tank and rob a bank.
The six, students from Cairo, ranging in age from 25 to 30, were caught by Border Policemen three weeks ago near the southern town of Nitzana along the Egyptian-Israeli border, equipped with knives and reconnaissance equipment.
According to the charge sheet, five of the defendants have been holding military training exercises for the past several years with the aim of perpetrating anti-Israel attacks. The five, police said, worked independently and are not affiliated with other terror organizations.
Between 2001 and 2004, the group, on several occasions, traveled to the Israeli border in order to infiltrate but for different reasons gave up and returned to Cairo. The charge sheet further states that the six planned to rob a bank in Mitzpeh Ramon in order to fund their terrorist activities in the country.
On August 25, close to midnight, the six were spotted by a Border Police patrol moving along the border with Egypt. The force opened chase and caught the six some three kilometers inside Israel wearing black clothes and carrying knives, binoculars, communication devices, flashlights and maps of Israel.
"We spotted the six infiltrators, opened chase and we caught them all," Chief of Border Police in the Ramon region, Asst.-Cmdr. Roni Ohana, who was in charge of the force, which captured the infiltrators, said. "They wanted to kidnap soldiers, bring them back into Egypt and negotiate their return in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisoners."
According to the charge sheet, the six met during mutual studies in Cairo. The terror group was also initially larger. but other members dropped out over the years.
Ohana said that his soldiers did an excellent job but warned that this attempt by terror organizations to enter Israel via the border with Egypt is not an isolated incident, and that this was not the first infiltration incident from Egypt that his soldiers were involved in.
"About a year and a half ago a soldier was killed by a terror cell that came to the Egyptian border and fired shots into Israel," he said. "This incident unfortunately reinforces the assessment that terror organizations are trying to infiltrate into Israel and carry out terror attacks via this border of peace."
Ohana said that terror organizations and drugs and weapons smugglers have copied their activities to the Israeli-Egyptian border "due to the intense IDF clampdown on the Palestinian town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip and since there is no fence for 320 kilometers along the border."
Last week, the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's counter-terrorism adviser issued a warning calling on Israelis to refrain from visiting Sinai and telling those there to leave. "Specific, concrete information of plans by terrorists to launch attacks in the near future against Israelis vacationing in Sinai have been received," security officials said.