(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)

Now released for publication: Walid Abid, head of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in northern Samaria, was killed during an IDF arrest operation early this morning in the city of Qabatya, south of Jenin. Another Islamic Jihad terror operative, Ibrahim Fuad Ibrahim Abu-Rob, was arrested. Abid was killed during exchanges of fire that erupted after IDF forces arrived at the house where he was staying in order to arrest him. An M16 assault rifle with a telescopic lens was later discovered on his body.

Walid Anis Yosef Abid Yalid, a 46 year-old Islamic Jihad terror operative, has been involved in intensive terrorist activity in the Samaria region since the 1980's. From 2004 he was a central figure in the Islamic Jihad which attempted to execute numerous terrorist attacks within Israel. Walid was directly responsible for several murderous suicide bombings, among them the planning of the April 2006 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in which eleven civilians were killed and dozens wounded.

Walid Abid planned numerous other suicide attacks. Among them, he planned the March 2006 attempted suicide bombing on Route 1. Kafeh Nuahadeh, an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber, traveled to his target on Route 1 with a bag containing explosives that was manufactured by the terrorist organization controlled by Walid Abid. The attack was successfully intercepted at the last minute due to the high alert of security forces and the early warning provided by the Israel Security Agency. In November 2006, another suicide bombing organized by the organization was foiled in Israeli territory when the bomber was arrested and the explosives handed over.

Walid Abid, as the head of the Islamic Jihad organization in Jenin, was the "brains" and central planner of the attempted suicide attack in February 2007, when a suicide bomber from Qabatya attempted to detonate a bag full of explosives on a bus in Tel Aviv, but failed due to a technical problem.