(Communicated by Israeli security sources)
Murad Alan, a Tanzim operative in the area of Bethlehem, was recently arrested by the Israel Security Agency. Alan, who holds an east Jerusalem ID, planned to carry out a suicide bombing attack at the Café Filter coffee shop in Jerusalem, where he worked as a cook. The planned suicide attack was to be carried out in order clear himself of accusations regarding collaboration with Israel.
Murad Mussa Ahmed Alan, 20, from the Aida refugee camp in the Bethlehem area, holds an east Jerusalem ID, since his mother is originally from east Jerusalem. Alan was enlisted six months ago by Fadi Halil Mussa Zalhat, a Palestinian security officer and Tanzim terrorist operative, in order to carry out a suicide bombing attack. Zalhat told Alan that Nabil Ahmed Salem Abayat, a Tanzim operative from Bethlehem, and he were searching for a potential suicide bomber to carry out an attack in Jerusalem.
During Alan's questioning he said he did not respond immediately to Zalhat's offer, but a week later he felt emotional stress due to the accusations against him of collaborating with Israel, and agreed to carry out the attack. Alan told Zalhat he was willing to carry out the attack in Café Filter, his work place in Jerusalem. Alan said in his questioning that after he saw the explosive belt he changed his mind and decided not to carry out the attack.
In addition to his involvement in the planning of the terrorist attack in Café Filter, Moran Alan was a member in a terrorist cell which carried out three shooting attacks in 2002, among them a shooting attack at the Gilo neighborhood and a shooting attack at a military base in Bei Tzahor, causing no injuries.
Fadi Zalhat was also arrested by the ISA on August 6, 2004.
Murad Alan is the brother of Ali Alan, a senior Hamas terrorist in the southern west bank, who was killed in March 2003. Ali was involved in the directing of murderous terror attacks inside Israel in which dozens Israeli civilians were killed and injured, among them the terrorist attacks at the Patt junction and in the Kiryat Menahem neighborhood in Jerusalem, in which a total of 31 Israeli civilians were killed and dozens injured.