How much damage did Israel do to itself by engaging with the terrorist thugs of Hamas in the 2011 Gilad Shalit transaction?
Whatever the answer, the toll is not static. It continues to grow and it includes innocent people murdered by terrorists who had murdered before they were released in the Shalit Deal and then murdered again once they were freed.
As we have said and written on numerous occasions since the catastrophic transaction was put together, we will regret the Shalit Deal for generations.
Here's today's update.
Israel announced that its
Shin Bet security service discovered and unraveled what
Times of Israel describes as
a complex Hamas money laundering operation that brought nearly three quarters of a million shekels into the terrorist group’s coffers... Through this plot, which began in early 2016, the group managed to transfer approximately $200,000 (NIS 720,000) into its Hebron offices from Turkey, with help from Gaza, in order to fund terrorist activities... In light of Israeli sanctions on the group, Hamas cannot freely move money in and out of the country. Five members of Hamas, all of them residing in Judea and Samaria in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, have been arrested. Two other suspects living in Turkey and the Gaza Strip are wanted but still, as far as we know, free.
The names we know include two men whose ability to engage in the funding of jihadist terror was handed to them as a gift when they were freed by Israel in that notorious 2011 deal with Hamas.
- The head of the operation is said to be Muhammad Maher Bader. Described as "a senior member of Hamas in Hebron", he is also "a member of the Palestinian parliament" which has not sat for many years. He has been in Israeli custody since June.
- Muasseb Hashalmon, also of Hebron, is under arrest and described as a money courier who brought cash to Hamas from Turkey.
- The same for Taha Uthman, also of Hebron.
- Another resident of Hebron named as Umar Qimri worked with a Hamas agent based in Gaza to conjure up the deals that were meant to disguise the cash transfers.
- Yet another resident of Hebron, Yusri Hashalmon, did the same.
The Hamas agent in Gaza is named by
Times of Israel as
Majd Jaaba who is also originally from Hebron. He has been a Gazan resident since being released to there in the Shalit Deal.
(full article online)
This Ongoing War: A Blog: 03-Aug-17: Two Shalit Deal beneficiaries are at the heart of a just-busted Hamas terror-financing operation