(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)
Majed Fahmi Salameh Kambaz, 29, is a resident of the Saja'iya neighborhood in the city of Gaza. Kambaz is a member of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization, which is involved in attacks on IDF forces and Israeli civilians. Kambaz was arrested in a joint IDF and ISA operation in the Gaza Strip on August 14, 2006.
During his investigation Kambaz gave ISA and Israel Police officials exact information on the location of a tunnel being dug by PRC terrorists in the direction of the Karni crossing. The organization planned to carry out a large-scale terror attack on the crossing by planting explosives in the tunnel- under the crossing and under the IDF administration building located in the compound. Assisted by the information Kambaz disclosed, the IDF in cooperation with the ISA, carried out a search operation in the area of Karni and on August 27th discovered the 13 meter-deep shaft and 150 meter-long tunnel near the crossing.
Due to the many security alerts regarding the intentions of terror organizations to carry out an attack on the crossing, the crossing has been intermittently closed over the past months as part of the activity to thwart such attempts. The Karni crossing is one of the main lifelines of the Palestinian population- allowing the passage of merchandise and medical supplies in and out of the Gaza Strip. Its targeting by the terror organizations, along with other crossings such as Erez and Kerem Shalom, is a deliberate attempt by terrorists to weaken the Palestinian economy. The targeting of these crossings which are reopened again and again after attacks is a cynical exploitation of the Israeli effort to ease the daily lives of Palestinian civilians who are not involved in terror activity. Despite the uncovering of this particular tunnel, the threat of terror against the crossing still exists.
Kambaz also told of his involvement in the terror attack on the Karni crossing on January 13, 2005, in which six Israeli civilians were killed. The attack was the result of the cooperation of senior terrorists from the Hamas, PRC and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades organizations. The attack itself was directed from the rooftop of Kambaz's house by senior PRC terrorist Mamtaz Dugmush, among others.
Kambaz gave investigators information on his involvement, along with other PRC operatives, in the murder of Mousah Arafat, former Head of Military Intelligence in the Palestinian Authority. Kambaz himself was part of the cell that broke into Arafat's home and was present at the time of the murder. The murder was carried out with the assistance of the Hamas terror organization. Fauzi Alqara, a senior Hamas terrorist, supplied equipment to the cell for the purpose of the murder. The murder is one example of the close cooperation between Hamas and the PRC, and of their joint efforts to undermine the Fatah organization's activity in the Gaza Strip.
Among his activities under PRC leadership, Kambaz underwent military training in the Gaza Strip, transferred weaponry to operatives, fired anti-tank missiles at IDF forces and enlisted suicide bombers for attacks.