Israel Defense Forces soldiers late Saturday arrested a top Hamas official in Ramallah, suspected of leading military cells responsible for the murder of more than 70 Israelis over the course of the second Intifada.The Hamas news article about this is not nearly so upset over his arrest as it is proud that he managed to avoid arrest for over a decade.
Mahar Udda, 47, has been wanted in Israel for over a decade for his alleged involvement in terror activity including the deadly double terror attack at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem and at the bus stop near the Tzrifin military base in central Israel on September 9, 2003.
He was one of the founding members of Hamas and built the Islamist movement's military cell in the West Bank in the early 1990s.
He was arrested by the Palestinian Authority in 1998, but released shortly after.
Udda's arrest late Saturday was executed in a joint effort between the IDF, Israel Police and the Shin Bet security service.
Hamas also assumes that the PA was involved in this arrest.