The group claiming responsibility for Sgt. Maj. Nissim Toledano’s kidnapping and murder has a bloody history of terrorist activity against Israel.
Its members are linked to the abduction and murder of Israeli soldiers Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa’adon in February and May of 1989, and the killing of three workers at an aluminum factory in Jaffa in December 1990.
More recently, the Moslem fundamentalist organization has claimed responsibility for two ambush attacks on Israeli army jeeps, killing three soldiers near Gaza on Dec. 7 and another soldier near Hebron on Dec. 12.
In an earlier attack, army reservist Shmuel Geresh was killed Oct. 25 while on duty at an observation post at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. On Nov. 21, a large-scale disaster was averted when police discovered and defused a Hamas car bomb in Or Yehuda.
Hamas was founded soon after the beginning of the intifada in December 1987 by Sheik Ahmed Yassin, now serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison in connection with the murders of Sasportas and Sa’adon.
Under the banner of Islam, it opposes not only Israel but the Palestine Liberation Organization and carries out executions of Arabs suspected of collaboration with Israel.
It is funded by Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
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