‘Islamic Jihad plotted to blow up Israeli wedding hall, kidnap IDF soldier’

 From the Jerusalem Post

Security services announced on Thursday that they had thwarted an Islamic Jihad plot to attack a wedding hall in the South and to kidnap and kill a soldier for the purposes of bargaining with Israel.

Mahmoud Yousef Hassin Abu Taha, a resident of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, was arrested last month while entering Israel through the Erez crossing, ostensibly for purposes of commerce.

Abu Taha was enlisted by Wael Sufian Abu Taha, a senior Islamic Jihad official in Gaza, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said. He instructed Mahmoud to form a cell in order to carry out a terrorist attack in the South and to kidnap a soldier to be used in a prisoner swap, the agency said. 
The three men whom Mahmoud enlisted to help him with the attacks were also arrested.

One of the suspects, Shafik Hamed Ahmed Abu Taha, 55, was illegally residing in Israel and was an employee of the wedding hall that the cell planned to attack.

According to the Shin Bet, Mahmoud planned to kill the soldier, bury him and send his belongings back to Gaza to use as bargaining chips with Israel.

The affair also shows the way in which terrorists take advantage of entry permits to Israel, given for humanitarian purposes to improve the economy of Gaza, the Shin Bet said. In addition, the plot shows the danger posed by Palestinians illegally residing in Israel, the agency warned.