(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)

Today the Military Court of Samaria convicted Houssam Mahmoud A'Rahman Hader, a member of the Palestinian legislative council, on three different charges of security offenses, following his confession to the charges. These consist mainly of the establishment of a terror cell in Nablus and the transferring of funds to the cell for the purpose of acquiring weaponry. On January 2003, this same cell dispatched two terrorists to commit a suicide attack in an Israeli community in Samaria, an attempt which was thwarted by Israeli security forces.

In addition to the charges above, Houssam was also convicted of failure to prevent an offense, in that he was aware that terrorist operatives intended to commit a suicide attack in the Israeli community of Bracha, but did nothing to dissuade them from this objective and did not inform Israeli or Palestinian security forces of their intentions.

In a plea bargain struck between the prosecution and the defense, Houssam Hader pleaded guilty on all charges against him. It should be noted that Hader is the highest ranking Palestinian official to confess transferring funds to Palestinian terror groups in order to finance terror attacks against Israeli targets. Hader's sentence is scheduled to be handed down on October 23, 2005.