Israelis Capture Major Hamas Mastermind

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Israel's military has captured Hamas's leading operative in the West Bank.

Israeli officials said Imad Kawasmeh surrendered to Israeli troops in Hebron on Wednesday. The officials said Kawasmeh, 31, was regarded as the most lethal Hamas operative in the West Bank and responsible for numerous suicide strikes in Israel.

The last strike was the double suicide bombings of Israeli buses in Beersheba in August 2004. Sixteen Israelis were killed in the attacks.

"He was an arch-murderer," Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said. "I hope his capture will strike a blow to the Hamas infrastructure in Hebron and reduce attacks from that area."
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Under Kawasmeh's leadership, the Hebron cell became the most active in Hamas's network in the West Bank. Kawasmeh was said to have worked with Hamas cells in Jerusalem and Nablus for attacks in Israel in 2003.

Several of the attacks planned by Kawasmeh failed. They included a June 2004 plot to carry out a suicide attack in Jerusalem. The failed attempt led to the killing of one cell member and the arrest of several others in Hebron and Jerusalem.

"After the suicide attack in Beersheba, dozens of Hamas terrorists were arrested and investigated," a military source said. "The results of the investigations showed that Imad Kawasmeh was the director of a wide network of terrorists and assistants guided by Kawasmeh to plan and carry out suicide and shooting attacks. Some of the terrorists were recently arrested and are now being questioned."

Israeli operations targeting specific terrorist leaders are not rare, my first post on this blog discussed the assassination of Ahmed Yassin earlier this year in some detail and with a lot of analysis into the background events, for very good reason. The targeting of specific individuals can help explain the basis and foundation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the wider Israeli-Islamic conflict; at least as I see it, that is.

However, most leaders are killed, not captured alive. Or, most of these events that the US public hears about are assassinations, not captures, so this event might only be unusual, not unique.


The effects on Palestine's Arafat-free government and reconstruction efforts (for lack of better term) should be interesting. This single capture will do little, but many similar captures may set standards for relations between Israel and Arafat-free Palestine.