(Communicated by Israeli security sources)

On December 22, 2005, the Israel Security Agency, Israel Police and IDF conducted a joint operation to arrest wanted PFLP terrorists in the city of Nablus. During the activity, Bashar Hanani, head of the PFLP terror infrastructure in Nablus, and two of his assistants, were killed after firing upon IDF forces who had come to arrest them.

Bashar A-latif Adal Hanani, 29, was responsible for the suicide bombing attack in the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv on November 1, 2004, in which three Israeli civilians were killed and 40 wounded. Since that attack, and in light of the arrests of other senior PFLP operatives during the past year, Hanani has become one of the central figures in the PFLP organization.

Since November 2004, Hanani was responsible for many attempted attacks against Israeli targets. Among these are:

• An attempt to detonate a 25 Kg explosive device against IDF forces in Nablus in conjunction with a shooting attack. The attack was thwarted following the arrest of Palestinian university students, who had been recruited by Hanani to carry out the attack.
  
• An attempt to carry out a suicide bombing, which was thwarted following the arrests of many of the operatives involved and the subsequent disclosure of the explosive bag which would have been used to carry out the attack.
  
• An attempt to carry out a suicide bombing at the Na'alin military base, which was thwarted following the arrests of the members of the terror cell which Hanani had recruited to carry out the attack. The same cell had also been planning to kidnap soldiers.
  
• An attempt to activate an explosive device against soldiers at an IDF base near Nablus.
  
• Activation of a car bomb against IDF forces in Nablus, in which no one was injured. 

In the past few months Hanani had been planning additional attacks, including a suicide bombing inside Israel as well as the detonation of a powerful explosive device against Israeli targets. In addition, Hanani was responsible for a large number of shooting attacks against IDF forces in the city of Nablus.

Bashar Hanani was killed along with two of his most prominent assistants: Annes Ahmad Mahmoud Sheik, 22, resident of Sanniriya, and Ahmad Abed Al Ra'ouf Mastafa Haled, 22, a resident of Jayyus who was involved in recruiting operatives to carry out suicide attacks.