(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Ashraf Nazmi Muhammad Kaisi, 26, single, from Baka al-Garbiyeh, was born and lived in Hadera until the age of 14, when his family moved to Baqa al-Garbiyeh. He has a high school diploma and speaks very good Hebrew. He was arrested on 26 February 2005 after transporting Abdallah Badran, a resident of Deir al Gutzin, who perpetrated the 25 February suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, in which five civilians were murdered and approximately 50 were wounded.

Kaisi admitted to working with Nadal Abu Saada, an Islamic Jihad terrorist from the Tulkarm area and three additional terrorists, and that he met with them in Arrabeh several times. He also admitted to carrying out several actions on their behalf while exploiting the fact that he had an Israeli identity card.

At the behest of Saadah and the other terrorists, Kaisi purchased 190 kilograms of fertilizer from a shop in his village, having been told that the material was for agricultural use. After the shop owner warned him that the fertilizer was dangerous and that it was forbidden to send it to Judea and Samaria, Kaisi inquired as to the real purpose of the fertilizer. Saadah told him that it was for manufacturing a very large bomb. Kaisi received NIS 2,000 for his efforts. Kaisi also helped Saadah and his associates to plan the kidnapping of a Jew in order to use him/her for bargaining purposes.

Kaisi said that at one of their recent meetings Saada and the others explained to him that they could assist him financially if he would drive a suicide terrorist into Israel.  Kaisi agreed and was also involved in selecting the attack site. He advised Saadah to forego the latter’s original plan to perpetrate the suicide attack in Netanya since - as Kaisi claimed - there were relatively few people on the streets due to the cold weather. He refused to infiltrate the suicide terrorist into Hadera on the grounds that he had family and friends there. Tel Aviv was finally selected as the site of the bombing; Kaisi boasted that he was familiar with the promenade area.

Saadah instructed Kaisi to pick up the suicide terrorist in Jerusalem since it was relatively easy to do so there due to the lack of security fence. Since Kaisi was unfamiliar with Jerusalem, he picked up Badran in the Jat area. They passed through a police checkpoint near Herzliya after Kaisi instructed Badran to pretend that he was asleep.  Kaisi dropped Badran off in Tel Aviv after first making sure that Badran waited until he had left the Tel Aviv area before perpetrating the attack.