A Gaza-based equipment dealer was indicted Sunday on charges of smuggling scuba diving equipment into the region and selling it to the Hamas terrorist organization.

The indictment came after a joint investigation by Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency, known as the Shin Bet.

Israel’s Southern District prosecutor filed an indictment in a Be’er Sheva court against 41-year-old Abd al-Rahman Sakallah.

The Gaza dealer faces seven charges that include security offenses, provision of service to an illicit organization, contact with a foreign agent, fraud under aggravated circumstances and carrying out illegal property transactions. He was also accused of selling sporting equipment and clothing to the terror organization.

Inspection agents always scrutinize goods as they enter the ports and the land crossings prior to delivery into Gaza due to the frequency of attempts to smuggle contraband to terrorist organizations. In this case, scuba diving equipment is used by Hamas terror commandos to retrieve smuggled weapons and other ordnance via illicit maritime deliveries, and infiltrate into Israel and carry out terror attacks.

Israeli Navy vessels allegedly fired at Gaza fishermen caught sailing outside the permitted zone off the coast of the al-Soudaniya area of central to southern Gaza. The incidents took place Saturday night and Sunday during the day, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency.

But an IDF spokesperson declined to comment on the report.

Gazans who appear to be “fishing” are sometimes seeking things other than living creatures for food beneath the waves, and Israeli sailors are forced to be on constant alert as they patrol the coastline to defend against arms smugglers and terrorists.

Just before midnight after Shabbat, IDF troops running standard operations alongside the Gaza border near Netiv Ha’asara came under fire from within Gaza.

No one was injured in the attack, but bullet holes were found in the ground next to the troops.

The IDF then fired at a Hamas position, according to the IDF spokesperson.

The IDF did not clarify if it used artillery or tank fire against the Hamas target.

The mother of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal died in Jordan, local media reported.

Meshaal, Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, was born in 1956 in Silwad in Judea and Samaria during the Jordanian occupation. He attended Silwad Elementary School until the 1967 Six-Day War, after which his father moved the family to Kuwait for financial reasons. Mashaal joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1971. He holds a bachelor of science degree in Physics from Kuwait University.

Herzl Shaul, the father of IDF Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul, z’l, has passed away 10 months after a hard-fought battle of his own with a difficult illness.

The elder Shaul has spent the past two years fighting for the return of his son’s remains from captivity by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, but earlier this year he was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine.

The soldier’s father was treated for the disease at Poriya Medical Center in Tiberias and at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, a global leader in the treatment of cancer, but the disease metastisized. Within the year Herzl Shaul lost 25 kilograms, more than 50 pounds.

This past week he gave up his fight for his son’s remains, as his own fight for life intensified. He was moved to Tel Hashomer Medical Center in Tel Aviv, with the Defense Minister providing accommodations for his wife near the hospital in order for her to remain close to her husband.

Shaul was initially believed to be missing. The six other soldiers inside his armored personnel carrier (APC) were killed. But the evidence gathered from the scene led investigators to the conclusion that the 20-year-old soldier had died in the July 20, 2014 battle during Operation Protection Edge. The terrorists who attacked his Givati Brigades unit stole his body to hold him hostage as a bargaining chip with Israel.

The younger Shaul was subsequently declared by the IDF Chief Rabbi to be a soldier who died but whose burial place is unknown. His family sat shiva, but later requested the IDF designate him as a soldier “missing in action,” which it did.

Herzl and Zehava Shaul for months led a daily vigil outside the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, pressuring the government to bring back the body of their son.

Netanyahu and his wife Sara expressed their condolences to the family on Friday. “In our meetings with Herzl we saw a strong man who devoted all his time and energy toward his health and efforts to return the body of his late son,” the prime minister said, adding a vow that Israel would not fail to retrieve Oron’s remains.

“The Defense Ministry and the people of Israel bow their heads in sorrow at the death of Herzl, of blessed memory,” said Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in his statement. I met with Herzl about a month ago. [He] did everything in his power to return his late son Oron and I am saddened he did not achieve this before he died. The Israeli government is committed to returning the bodies of Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul and Lieutenant Hadar Goldin of blessed memory and bringing them to Israel for burial.”

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot paid tribute to the elder Shaul as well, saying he had pledged to keep fighting to return the bodies of both his son and Goldin. “Herzl was the head of an exemplary family,” he said in a statement.

“I send a strong embrace to [his wife] Zehava and the family at this difficult time. I met Herzl for the last time a week ago, and I promised him that we will continue to do everything we can to bring Oron and Hadar home, to be laid to rest in Israel.”

By Michael Zeff/TPS

A businessman from Gaza with an entry permit to Israel and Judea and Samaria told the IDF under questioning on Wednesday that he had transferred USD 50,000 in cash from Hamas officials in Gaza to those in Hebron, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) revealed on Thursday evening.

According to Hamas’s own media reports, the businessman in question, Bashir Muhammad Yunus Mustafa, was apprehended at the Erez Crossing between Israel and Gaza by the Israeli Crossing Authority and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

Mustafa, a resident of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, held a permanent permit issued by COGAT that allowed him to cross over freely from Gaza into Israel and to enter Judea and Samaria. According to COGAT, such permits are issued by the Israeli government for humanitarian reasons and in order to facilitate free trade between Gaza and the Palestinian Authority controlled territories.

According to COGAT Spokesperson, Hadar Horn, Mustafa was released after his questioning. “He has a heart condition,” was Horn’s explanation for the immediate release.

An Israeli security official revealed to Tazpit Press Service (TPS) that the Hamas terror organization has its own so-called “crossings unit.”. According to our source, one of the purposes of this unit is to identify Gazan residents who have entry permits into Israel or crossing permits into Judea and Samaria for either humanitarian or business reasons and to then approach these individuals and recruit them to serve as “mules” for their money-smuggling operations.

“It is very likely that this businessman is a decent and innocent man, but it’s a bit hard to say no to Hamas,” the security source told TPS.

Hamas is outlawed as an illegal terror organization in Israel, the United States, and the European Union. The organization contains a political and military faction that are the de facto sovereign in the Gaza strip.

Israel’s security and intelligence bodies over the past few months have apprehended several individuals who had legal entry permits to Israel and who used them to transfer large sums of money to Hamas operatives outside of Gaza.

“Terrorist groups take advantage of these [entry] permits for illegal purposes such as the financing of terrorism,” a Shin Bet spokesperson stated. “The money was destined for Hamas cells operating in Judea and Samaria. Hamas took advantage of Israel’s willingness to issue humanitarian permits to Gazans.”

An IDF soldier sustained mild to moderate injuries while guarding 16 buses that transported Jewish worshipers to Jseph’s Tomb in Shechem overnight Thursday. IDF, Civil Administration, Israel Police and Border Guard troops secured the worshipers’ movement in and out of the site. The worshipers were pelted with stones and firebombs and Israeli forces responded using means for dispersing demonstrations.

The injured soldier was evacuated for treatment at Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva an is in stable condition. A preliminary investigation revealed that the soldier was shot in the vicinity of the entrance to the Balata refugee camp, near the tomb.

Meanwhile, IDF forces overnight arrested six Hamas suspects in Judea and Samaria.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan formally approved the country’s normalization deal with Israel on Wednesday (August 31), the state-run Anadolu Agency reports.

The agreement, signed by Turkish and Israeli negotiators on June 27, restores diplomatic ties between the two former allies after a hiatus of more than six years. Israeli charge d’affaires in Ankara, Amira Oron, said Monday (August 29) the two countries are expected to exchange ambassadors sometime within the next several weeks.

“The Law No. 6743 regarding the approval of the agreement between the Republic of Turkey and the State of Israel over compensation has been submitted to the Prime Ministry for promulgation,” a statement by the president’s office said.

Erdogan sent the agreement 12 days after it was officially approved by the Turkish parliament, and following its approval by Israeli cabinet ministers in late June.

The deal was ratified by Turkish lawmakers on August 19 after weeks of delay due to an attempted coup that failed to overthrow the Turkish government on July 15.

The agreement ends a period of rancor that followed an ugly incident in 2010 in which an illegal flotilla attempted to breach Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza. Among the six vessels participating in the incident was a Turkish ship. Israeli commandos boarding the vessel to redirect it to Ashdod port were attacked by armed “activists” who included Turkish citizens; the resulting clash left 10 Turks dead and numerous Israelis seriously wounded.

Turkey demanded an apology, payment of $20 million in compensation to the families of the dead and lifting of the blockade on Gaza in order to restore relations. “Ankara now considers these terms satisfied,” according to a report published Wednesday in the Hurriyet Daily News. “Israel will hand Turkey a ‘lump sum’ payment within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, with families of the victims able to access the funds in due course.

“Both sides also agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable — either criminally or financially — for the raid,” according to the report.

Turkey has already been allowed to ship its own humanitarian aid into Gaza, and plans have been started for Ankara to build a hospital in the region.