| IDF Chief Assassination
Foiled - Israeli-Arab Plotted to Kill IDF Chief
4Law - August 31, 2009
Indictment issued against Rawi
Fuad Sultani who is suspected to have spied on Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
for Hezbollah
On Monday (Aug 31), a severe indictment
was issued at the Petah Tikva District Court, against 23-year-old Rawi
Fuad Sultani from Tirah, who was recruited by Hezbollah in order to spy
on the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. Sultani
was arrested at the beginning of August after an investigation by the Israel
Security Agency (ISA) and the Unit for International Investigation of the
Israel Police (UII).
The indictment
notes that in August 2008, Sultani, together with other young men and women,
traveled to Morocco with the Israeli Arab Balad party, in order to participate
in a multi-national Arab summer camp, which takes place every year in a
different country. The camp was also attended by Salman Harb, a 26-year-old
Shi’ite Lebanese Hezbollah terror operative, who befriended the Israeli
participants. Salman Harb personally met with the group of young Israelis,
introduced himself as a Hezbollah operative, lectured on the “Struggle”
and even showed excerpts of a movie on the Second Lebanon War, produced
by the Al-Manar Hezbollah
television station.
In the course of the investigation,
Sultani admitted that during his meetings with Salman, he had informed
the operative that he had information on Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. Sultani
kept in touch with the Hezbollah operative through phone conversations
and Facebook also after returning from the summer camp.
Sultani’s contact with Hezbollah
members did not end at this. In December 2008, Sultani flew to Poland in
order to meet with an additional operative of the terror organization,
known as Sami. During this meeting, Sultani officially joined Hezbollah
and delivered the information he had collected on Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
and the possibilities to harm him, thanks to the fact that Sultani worked
out at the same gym as the Chief of the General Staff.
An additional paragraph in the indictment
points out that Sultani was asked by Sami to collect information on additional
senior IDF officers and IDF bases in Israel. After returning from Poland,
Sultani continued his communication with Salman and Sami.
Simultaneously to the investigation
on Sultani, the ISA and the UII also questioned other participants of the
summer camp, who testified that they had been in touch with Salman during
the camp. After they denied still being in touch with Hezbollah operatives
and after having been warned of entertaining any further contact with members
of the terror organization, the youths were released.
The information gathered during
the investigation on Sultani shows Hezbollah’s efforts to recruit Israelis
for terror activities. Ever since the death of Imad Mughniyah in February
2008, the organization has been working on an act of reprisal, with senior
IDF officers being a preferred target. |
