December 22, 2003
New Threats - the use of chemical materials for Palestinian terrorist acts

Rashid Tareq El-Nimr, resident of the village of Hawara, holds a doctor degree in chemistry who worked for different hospitals in Nablus and Bethlehem. Nimr is the nephew of Faruk Kadumi, head of the political department of the PLO. Nimr and was arrested by Israeli security forces on November 24, 2003 and confessed in his investigation that he provided chemical materials for the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Nablus, by using his access to such materials in the framework of his job in a hospital. These chemical materials primarily intended for a medical use, were used by the Hamas in Nablus as raw material for making bombs. Nimr mentioned that a few months earlier he met Haled Abu Hamed, a wanted Hamas terrorist, resident of Nablus, through another Hamas operative who used to hide in the hospital he worked for in Nablus. Haled asked Nimr to obtain chemical materials from the hospital he worked in for the Hamas, in order to develop explosive devices. In several meetings that took place, Rashid provided Haled with six cans of hydrogen peroxide, for NIS 3,600. Haled hid the fluid in an apartment in Nablus and told Rashid that "In the next few day a large scale explosion will take place". The hydrogen peroxide is used for producing explosive materials typed TATP which were used in the past by Hamas in numerous suicide bombings, causing the death of dozens of Israelis. It is important to note that the improvised explosive material is very volatile and might explode in a populated area.

A month prior to the arrest of Nimr, he met with Said Kutub, a Hamas terrorist who gave him a certain amount of money for the purchasing of additional gallons of oxygen fluid. At the beginning of November 2003, El-Nimar began to work in a Bethlehem hospital. During that time Kutub continued to request materials for Hamas and guided him in locating a shelter in which he will be able to hide the materials.

Two days prior to El-Nimar's arrest, Kutub requested him to obtain sulfuric acid nitric acid, materials used for producing an advanced explosive, nitroglycerin. Nimr said that since he was a well known Nablus hospital worker, he managed to purchase a sufficient amount of materials without any hospital approval, saying that the materials are used for hospital supply. Nimr said he used an ambulance in order to transfer two gallons of hydrogen peroxide to the ambulance company's offices in Nablus, from where Kutub took them home.

During his stay in Bethlehem El-Nimar could not manage to obtain sulfuric acid nitric acid but he told Kutub that when he will be able to obtain the materials, he will transfer them with an ambulance.

Bachar Bilel, a senior Hamas terrorist, arrested by Israeli security forces in October 2003, testified in his investigation that it is very easy to transfer chemical materials from Israel to Judea and Samaria area. Furthermore, Bilel said that a year earlier at a meeting of dozens of wanted Palestinians from the old city of Nablus, one of the wanted Palestinians said that he has a permanent way of smuggling chemical materials from Israel. Bilel added that those wanted Palestinians are in contact with drivers who smuggle the materials from Israel. The drivers receive a permit in coordination with the civil administration and the factories they work for in the West Bank, which allows them to travel with the materials according to an order of the exact amount of type and amount. The drivers are familiar with the workers in the factories in Israel and bribe them into loading an additional amount of material. The approved amount of materials is taken by the drivers to the factories and the additional amount of materials is sold by them to wanted Palestinians in Nablus.