The use of ambulances and medical material for terror
Background Information 22 December 2003
(attributed to security sources)

Since September 2000 the security forces are witnessing the cynical use by
terror organizations of the Palestinian medical resources in general and of
ambulances in particular, assuming they are 'immune' to security checks at
checkpoints.

The use by the terrorist organizations of medical resources, particularly
ambulances, in order to bypass the searches and security checks in IDF
checkpoints emphasizes the need for a security check of medical vehicles.
Such searches are conducted in order to ensure that ambulances are not used
by terrorists in an attempt to transport terrorists, weaponry and explosive
devices.

One of the most prominent incidents is the suicide bombing attack on Jaffa
Street in Jerusalem on January 27, 2002, in which an Israeli civilian was
killed and over 100 were injured. The suicide bombing was carried out by
Waffa Idris, a resident of the Amari refugee camp near Ramallah. Idris acted
as a medical secretary in the Palestinian Red Crescent. Following an
investigation by security forces, it appears that the suicide bombers was
dispatched to carry out the attack by Muhamad Hababa, a resident of the
village of Beit Iksa near Ramallah, a Tanzim operative and an ambulance
driver of the Palestinian Red Crescent. An additional associate to the
terror attack was Munzar Nur, a resident of Anabta, near Tulkarm, which
worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent as well.

Incidents in which ambulances were used for terrorist activities:

+ On March 27, 2002 IDF forces arrested Islam Jibril, a Tanzim operative at
a checkpoint near Ramallah. Jibril, born 1971, a resident of the Balata
refugee camp in Nablus, and worked as an ambulance driver in the Palestinian
Red Crescent. Jibril was arrested while driving a Red Crescent ambulance con
taining an explosive belt and explosive devices. During his investigation
Jiblril confessed that the bombs were handed to him in Nablus by Mahmud
Titi, a senior Tanzim operative in the Samaria area who was killed by
security forces. The explosive belt was hidden underneath a stretch carrying
a sick Palestinian boy aside his family members.

+ Following an investigation it appears that during March 2002 several
Palestinian terrorists in Ramallah were using ambulances in order to move
from once spot to another. The terrorists were wearing medical uniforms and
some of them used city hospitals as a hiding place.

+ On October 2001 Israeli security forces arrested Nidal Nazal, resident of
Qalkilya, a Hamas terrorist and the brother of Nasser Nazal - a senior Hamas
terrorist in the city. Nidal worked as an ambulance driver for the
Palestinian Red Crescent. In his investigation Nidal confessed to the
transfer of weaponry for terrorists and using his freedom of passage granted
to him due to the fact that he was an ambulance driver. Furthermore, Nidal
used this privilege in order to act as a messenger of Hamas HQ in different
Palestinian cities.

+ In a document seized during operation 'Defensive Shield', it was noted
that there were weapons concealed in the floor on an ambulance. In an
another document it is noted that the Palestinian general intelligence
service used an ambulance to transfer a suspect from Husan to Bethlehem.

The use of chemical materials for terrorist acts

Rashid Tareq El-Nimr, resident of the village of Hawara, holds a doctor
degree in chemistry who worked for different hospitals in Nablus and
Bethlehem. Nimr is the nephew of Faruk Kadumi, head of the political
department of the PLO. Nimr and was arrested by Israeli security forces on
November 24, 2003 and confessed in his investigation that he provided
chemical materials for the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Nablus, by
using his access to such materials in the framework of his job in a
hospital. These chemical materials primarily intended for a medical use,
were used by the Hamas in Nablus as raw material for making bombs. Nimr
mentioned that a few months earlier he met Haled Abu Hamed, a wanted Hamas
terrorist, resident of Nablus, through another Hamas operative who used to
hide in the hospital he worked for in Nablus. Haled asked Nimr to obtain
chemical materials from the hospital he worked in for the Hamas, in order to
develop explosive devices. In several meetings that took place, Rashid
provided Haled with six cans of hydrogen peroxide, for NIS 3,600. Haled hid
the fluid in an apartment in Nablus and told Rashid that "In the next few
day a large scale explosion will take place". The hydrogen peroxide is used
for producing explosive materials typed TATP which were used in the past by
Hamas in numerous suicide bombings, causing the death of dozens of Israelis.
It is important to note that the improvised explosive material is very
volatile and might explode in a populated area.

A month prior to the arrest of Nimr, he met with Said Kutub, a Hamas
terrorist who gave him a certain amount of money for the purchasing of
additional gallons of oxygen fluid. At the beginning of November 2003,
El-Nimar began to work in a Bethlehem hospital. During that time Kutub
continued to request materials for Hamas and guided him in locating a
shelter in which he will be able to hide the materials.

Two days prior to El-Nimar's arrest, Kutub requested him to obtain sulfuric
acid nitric acid, materials used for producing an advanced explosive,
nitroglycerin. Nimr said that since he was a well known Nablus hospital
worker, he managed to purchase a sufficient amount of materials without any
hospital approval, saying that the materials are used for hospital supply.
Nimr said he used an ambulance in order to transfer two gallons of hydrogen
peroxide to the ambulance company's offices in Nablus, from where Kutub took
them home.

During his stay in Bethlehem El-Nimar could not manage to obtain sulfuric
acid nitric acid but he told Kutub that when he will be able to obtain the
materials, he will transfer them with an ambulance.

Bachar Bilel, a senior Hamas terrorist, arrested by Israeli security forces
in October 2003, testified in his investigation that it is very easy to
transfer chemical materials from Israel to Judea and Samaria area.
Furthermore, Bilel said that a year earlier at a meeting of dozens of wanted
Palestinians from the old city of Nablus, one of the wanted Palestinians
said that he has a permanent way of smuggling chemical materials from
Israel. Bilel added that those wanted Palestinians are in contact with
drivers who smuggle the materials from Israel. The drivers receive a permit
in coordination with the civil administration and the factories they work
for in the West Bank, which allows them to travel with the materials
according to an order of the exact amount of type and amount. The drivers
are familiar with the workers in the factories in Israel and bribe them into
loading an additional amount of material. The approved amount of materials
is taken by the drivers to the factories and the additional amount of
materials is sold by them to wanted Palestinians in Nablus.