The killing of Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon refers to two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hamas on February 16 and May 3, 1989, and subsequently killed. They were the first victims of the newly founded Palestinian militant organization.[citation needed] Ilan Saadon's body was found in 1996.[1]
In December 1987, with the beginning of the first intifada, Hamas was founded by Muslim Brotherhood members and was headed by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Mohammad Taha. Hamas sent out feelers, via talks with Shimon Peres, in early 1988 offering an acknowledgement of Israel in exchange for a return to the 1967 borders, but soon discarded negotiations in favour of armed resistance, in order to clearly demarcate the difference between its position and that of Palestinian nationalists.[2] Since the leaders of Majd, Hamas's internal security service, Salah Shehade and Yahya Sinwar, were detained in prison, Hamas set up a new structure, called Unit 101, headed by Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose function was to abduct Israeli soldiers.[2]
Unit 101's operations were headed by Mohammed Youssef al-Sharatha. The other squad members were Abed Rabo Abu Jose, co-founder of Hamas' military wing, Muhammad Nazim Nasser.[citation needed]
Avi Sasportas
Sergeant Avi Sasportas was born and raised in the city of Ashdod, where he lived. In his youth he volunteered in the BBYO youth movement and in the Civil Guard. In November 1986, Sasportas joined the IDF and was assigned to the Israeli Special Forces unit Maglan.[citation needed]
On February 16, 1989, Sasportas got in a vehicle carrying two Hamas militants disguised as Israeli Jewish ultra-orthodox men, who beat him to death shortly thereafter.[3][2] On May 7, 1989, Avi Sasportas' body was found buried in a field, near the site at which he had been abducted, during search operations for Ilan Saadoun.[2] He was buried soon thereafter in a military cemetery in Ashdod.[4]
On May 3, 1989, Saadoun was given a leave of absence from the military. Saadoun and a friend of his made their way back home, hitchhiking from Latrun, and they arrived together at the Masmiya intersection. At 19:30 a white Subaru car with Israeli license plates stopped at a hitchhiking stop. Mahmoud Naser and Mohammad sat in the vehicle, disguised as Israeli Jewish ultra orthodox men, and invited the soldiers to join them on a ride towards Ashkelon. Only Saadoun got in the car, since the back seat was loaded with equipment[citation needed] and therefore only one additional passenger could fit in the car.[3]
The hijackers initially planned to drive Saadon to the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza.[3] After seeing an IDF patrol on their way, they changed their direction, and drove towards Palmachim.[citation needed] During the ride the captors struggled with Saadoun,[citation needed] and shot him in the head.[3] The attackers buried Saadon's body in the Palmachim scrap site.[citation needed]
Searches
On May 5, two days after the killing, Saadon was declared absent. That same day, the white Subaru was found abandoned in an orchard near Beit Lahiya. Investigators discovered a large blood stain in the car, as well as Saadon's fingerprints. As a result, extensive searches were conducted, but they produced nothing. A month later the searches were halted.[citation needed]
A month after the abduction, a large campaign of arrests was conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip. Among the 650 Hamas members that were arrested was the squad commander, Mohammed Youssef al-Sharatha. During their interrogation, al-Sharatha and Ahmed Yassin claimed they did not know where Saadoun's body was buried. Yassin denied all involvement, stating he had only authorized the killing of collaborators with Israel. He had refused prisoner exchanges with Israel, a point that may have contributed to the execution of the two Israeli soldiers.[2]
The other squad members were able to flee the country, carrying with them several personal items belonging to Saadoun. The three passed through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. From there, Nasser and al-Mabhouh continued to Dubai.[citation needed]
During the following years, whenever new bits of information or speculations were revealed, targeted searches were conducted with the aim of finding Saadoun's body. Through the years, Saadon's family members independently conducted searches for his body. Saadon's family members even visited Yassin in an Israeli prison, in an attempt to obtain new information on the whereabouts of Ilan Saadon. Over the years there were various allegations made by various organizations claiming that they were holding Saadon alive, and that he would be returned in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners – these organizations even presented the dog tag of Saadon as evidence. These claims turned out eventually to be false.[citation needed]
After the Oslo Accords, PA officials attempted to locate the burial place of Ilan Saadon's body. In the Spring of 1996, Muhammad Nasser drew two maps that led Israeli investigators to Saadon's grave. The information was passed through to the Israeli investigators through PA leader Yasser Arafat. According to maps, Saadoun was buried in the Palmahim area, between the Park-Rave Interchange and moshav Gan Sorek. In the seven years that had passed since his killing, major construction had taken place in that area.
The investigators team compared the maps drawn, with aerial photos taken during the period of the killing, and managed to mark a number of possible sites in which Saadon may have been buried. The first excavations did not produce anything, and the only site that had been left unchecked was a site which was now covered with a newly paved road.
The team was assisted by additional photographs, advanced instruments, and interviews with designers and builders of the road, and managed to establish a new approximate location of the burial site of Ilan Saadon. In order to make it possible to conduct excavations on the road section, a new road was paved to bypass around the target section. After over a month of carefully conducted excavations, at noon of August 11, 1996, the remains of Ilan Saadon were found.
Saadon's funeral was held on August 12, 1996. He was buried at the military cemetery in Ashkelon.[citation needed]
Aftermath
Ahmed Yassin was arrested by the Israeli forces shortly after the abduction of Ilan Saadon, and convicted of offenses related to the abductions and killings of Sasportas and Saadoun. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and an additional 15 years' imprisonment. In 1997 Yassin was released from Israeli prison as part of an arrangement with Jordan following the failed assassination attempt of Khaled Mashal.
Immediately after his release from Israeli prison, Yassin resumed his calls for attacks on Israel, using tactics including suicide bombings, violating the condition of his release.[5]
Salah Shehadeh was released from Israeli prison in 2000, and became the commander of the Hamas military wing in Gaza. On July 22, 2002, Shehadeh was killed in an Israeli targeted killing in which an Israel F-16 bombed his house, located in a residential neighborhood in Gaza. Shehadeh was killed together with his assistant and another 14 people, including his wife and one of his daughters.
Mohammed Youssef al-Sharatha, the commander of the militant squad, was caught a month after the abduction and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Over the years, Hamas sought to obtain his release in a prisoner swap deal in return for Gilad Shalit. The family of Ilan Saadon expressed strong opposition to this option, but he was released on October 18, 2011, as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal.[6]
On November 19, 2001, a Golani Brigade force captured squad member Abed-Rabo Abu Jose in the Sg'aih neighborhood in Gaza.
Squad member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in Dubai on January 20, 2010. The assassination is believed to be the work of the Israeli Mossad intelligence service.[2] According to a Hamas statement, Al-Mabhouh had been involved in the 1989 abduction and killing of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon, whose murders he celebrated by standing on one of their corpses.[7][8] In a video taped two weeks before his death, and broadcast on Al-Jazeera in early February 2010, Mabhouh admitted his involvement, saying he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew.[9][10]
↑ After al-Mabhouh's death, Sa'adon's mother was quoted as saying, "I am happy that [his death] has been avenged, but sad that 20 years passed before this happened."( "Israel killed Hamas member in Dubai". The Jerusalem Post. January 29, 2010. Retrieved January 31, 2010.)
1 Attacks launched from Lebanon 2 Attacks launched from the Gaza Strip 3 Attacks launched from Egypt 1970s1990s
Related Research Articles
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a Palestinian militant Islamist and nationalist organization in the Gaza Strip, in 1987.
Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was a Palestinian political leader and co-founder of Hamas, along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Ibrahim al-Makadmeh was a Palestinian and Hamas senior leader in the Gaza Strip who was killed by Israeli forces. Makadmeh, one of Hamas' founders and a leader of the group's military wing, was accused of engineering several attacks that killed 28 Israelis.
Wa'el Nassar (1973–2004) was an active member and one of the senior leaders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, until his assassination by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on 30 May 2004 in Gaza City.
Said Seyam, first name also spelled Saeed and Sayed and last name also spelled Siam, was the interior minister of the Palestinian government of March 2006. He joined Hamas and became one of its top commanders. During the 2008–2009 Gaza War, Seyam was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia. Seyam was the most senior Hamas member killed in the war, and the most senior Hamas figure killed by Israel since the death of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in April 2004.
Avi Dichter is an Israeli politician currently serving as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. A former Minister of Internal Security and Shin Bet director, he resigned from the Knesset and left Kadima in August 2012 in order to become Minister of Home Front Defense, a position he vacated in March 2013.
The abduction and killing of Nachshon Wachsman was a 1994 incident in which Palestinian Hamas abducted Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman from the Bnei Atarot junction in central Israel, and held him hostage for six days. The incident ended in a failed Israeli rescue attempt, during which Wachsman, three of his captors and an Israeli officer were killed.
Ahmed al-Jabari, also known as Abu Mohammad, was a senior leader and second-in-command of the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was widely credited as the leading figure in the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, and commanded the 2006 Hamas cross-border raid which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Under his command, along with chief logistics officer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Hamas developed its own military weapons capability significantly by acquiring longer-range guided missiles and rockets.
Rabbi Menachem Froman was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi, and a peacemaker and negotiator with close ties to Palestinian religious leaders. A founding member of Gush Emunim, he served as the chief rabbi of Tekoa in the West Bank. He was well known for promoting and leading interfaith dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, focusing on using religion as a tool and source for recognizing the humanity and dignity of all people. Together with a Palestinian journalist close to Hamas, Rabbi Froman drafted a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, known as the Froman-Amayreh Agreement. The agreement was endorsed by Hamas government, but it did not receive any official response from the Israeli government.
Mahmoud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhouh was the chief of logistics and weapons procurement for Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He is remembered for his assassination in Dubai and the diplomatic crisis his assassination triggered after Mossad agents allegedly used forged foreign passports to carry out the killing.
The assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh took place on 19 January 2010, in a hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh—a co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas—was wanted by the Israeli government for the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 as well as purchasing arms from Iran for use in Gaza; these have been cited as a possible motive for the assassination.
The 2010 Gaza clashes were military clashes in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups that occurred in March 2010.
Events in the year 1989 in Israel.
Events in the year 2010 in the Palestinian territories.
The 2006 Gaza cross-border raid, known by Palestinian militants as Operation Dispersive Illusion was an armed incursion carried out by seven or eight Gazan Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 who attacked Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions near the Kerem Shalom Crossing through an attack tunnel. In the attack, two IDF soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed, four IDF soldiers were wounded, one of whom was Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to the Gaza Strip.
The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, also known as Wafa al-Ahrar, followed a 2011 agreement between Israel and Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners — almost all Palestinians and Arab-Israelis, although there were also a Ukrainian, a Jordanian and a Syrian. Two hundred and eighty of these had been sentenced to life in prison for planning and perpetrating various attacks against Israeli targets.
On August 5, 1993, Hamas militants abducted and later killed Israeli soldier Yaron Chen.
The abduction and killing of Nissim Toledano began on 13 December 1992, when a squad of Hamas abducted Israeli border policeman Senior Sergeant Nissim Toledano in Lod, Israel. Although the captors demanded the release of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin for Toledano, Toledano was killed by his captors.
Ismail Abu Shanab was a Palestinian engineer and one of the founders of Hamas. He was one of its three most senior leaders in Gaza. More specifically, he was the second highest leader of Hamas only after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He was also the political leader of Hamas, who was strongly against suicide bombings and in favor of a long-term truce.
The 2014 Gush Etzion kidnapping and murder refers to the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank during June 2014. The victims, Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer, and Naftali Fraenkel, were Israeli students aged 16 and 19. On the evening of 12 June 2014, the three teenagers were hitchhiking in the Alon Shvut settlement in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank when they were abducted.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
1990s 
