February 11, 2005 Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (CSS)

Yusuf George Daud Kila, a 27-year-old PFLP operative from Bir Zeit, was arrested on February 11, 2005 by the Israeli security forces. This followed the arrest of two other cell members in January: Nidal Muhammad Yusuf Abu Alma ( January 9, 2005 ) and Ubai Fahmi Bassil al-Aboudi ( January 20, 2005 ).

In his questioning, Kila admitted that the three cell members, guided by Bashar Abd al-Latif Aref Hanani, a senior PFLP operative, had been planning to carry out a terrorist attack at the Armored Corps Museum, located adjacent to Latrun junction, using two suicide bombers and a car bomb. The location of the terrorist attack was suggested by Kila, who was familiar with it since he had worked in the vicinity of the Latrun Monastery in the years 2000-2001. In his questioning, Abu Alma stated that his role was to rig the car with explosives and detonate it with Kila’s assistance. Bashar Hanani was supposed to see to the recruitment of the two suicide bombers and to the obtaining of the explosives. Ubai’s role was to transport the two suicide bombers.

The questioning revealed an additional plan to perpetrate a shooting attack against an IDF jeep on the Ramallah bypass road. Abu Alma admitted that the three had planned to take the soldiers’ weapons after the shooting, abduct their bodies and conceal them in abandoned houses in the older neighborhood of Bir Zeit. 1 For that purpose, said Abu Alma, he and Kila had searched for an appropriate place to conceal the bodies in the Bir Zeit region. Abu Alma stated that he had asked Ubai to survey the location in order to see whether IDF vehicles traveled through the area at regular intervals.