JERUSALEM (JTA) — A wanted Islamic Jihad operative was arrested in Israel.
Zalach Muhammad Buchari, 36, was arrested Monday night in Nablus in a joint operation of the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency.
Buchari has been wanted for seven years, according to an IDF statement. He is suspected of planning a suicide bombing in the Tel Aviv central bus station in January 2002 for Islamic Jihad. Twenty-eight civilians were wounded, three of them critically, in the attack.
In 2003, Buchari reportedly recruited another suicide bomber to carry out an attack within Israel that was thwarted at the last minute by security forces.
Between 2002 and 2003, Buchari allegedly planned to abduct Israeli soldiers and to construct an explosives-manufacturing lab inside Israeli territory, the IDF said.
Buchari went into hiding in Nablus seven years ago for fear of being arrested.
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