(Communicated by the IDF Spokesman)

In a security forces operation today, 2 January 2006, the IDF carried out an aerial attack against senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Sayid Abed-El Fatah Ibrahim Judyan.

Judyan, 41 and a resident of Beit Lahiya had been imprisoned in an Israeli security facility between 1997-2002 for his activity as a member of the Islamic Jihad terror organization. With his release from prison, Judyan resumed his terror activities and became one of the senior Islamic Jihad terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip.

Judyan was involved in the planning and implementation of various terror attacks including suicide attacks, infiltration of Israeli facilities and detonation of explosive devices against IDF forces.

In the past weeks Judyan had headed an Islamic Jihad terror cell which was responsible for the launching of numerous projectile rockets at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.