Last update - 00:00 13/07/2007
IDF lifts gag on arrest of militant implicated in Shalit abduction
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, Associated Press and Haaretz Service
The Shin Bet security service lifted a gag order on Friday on the June 9 arrest of a Palestinian militant involved in the abduction of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit in June of last year.
The militant is 30-year-old Mohammed Salameh Abed Zufi from the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. He was arrested near Rafah in a joint Shin Bet and IDF raid. The announcement was delayed until an indictment was prepared, the army said.
Shin Bet sources said that Zufi's role in the abduction included photographing the attack, jointly carried out by Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees, in which Shalit was taken captive and two of his comrades were killed on June 25, 2006.
IDF sources also said that Zufi is accused of taking part in firing Qassam rockets from Gaza into southern Israel.
Zufi was also involved, according to security sources, in a raid on the "Africa" post, next to the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza.
During that attack, which took place in 2002, militants killed an IDF officer and three soldiers from a Bedouin patrol battalion.