Israeli security sources have foiled a plot concocted by a Fatah officer in an Israeli jail to engineer the abduction of a soldier who could subsequently be exchanged for his own release Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
The putative abduction was the brainchild of Mohammed Naifa a Fatah official sentenced to 13 life terms for involvement in anti-occupation attacks against Israeli targets.
Yuval Biton the deputy prisons commissioner was quoted by Haaretz as stating that prisoners in that situation might try to orchestrate a kidnapping in order to gain their own freedom because there isn’t any alternative way to get out.
Information about Naifa’s plan came to light on Saturday following which special forces took steps to thwart it Biton said.
Naifa held at the Gilboa Prison is one of the highest ranking Fatah figures in Israeli custody. He was arrested in November 2002 during the Second Intifada and convicted of plotting – and sending people to perpetrate – anti-occupation attacks.
