"The Key Was With Me the Whole Time": Terror Suspect Confesses to Holding Oron Shaul’s Body

This morning (Wednesday), it was cleared for publication that following a complex joint investigation by the Israel Security Agency and the National Unit for International Investigations in Lahav 433, a serious indictment is expected to be filed in the coming days against Ibrahim Hilo, a Hamas terrorist from the Shati Battalion, for his involvement in holding the body of fallen IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, of blessed memory, for close to ten years.

According to the details of the investigation, the terrorist was arrested as part of a covert operation carried out within the ongoing efforts to recover Shaul’s body. Shaul was killed in battle in Shejaiya during Operation "Protective Edge" in 2014, and his body was abducted by the Hamas terror organization. During the Shin Bet and Lahav 433 interrogations, information was obtained pointing to his direct involvement in holding the body, and later the exact location where it had been kept in Gaza City was also uncovered.

During the interrogation, Hilo broke down and gave investigators a detailed account of the moment the body was transferred to him. In his interrogation, he said: "They called me and said they needed to give me something to guard. When I asked what it was, they told me, 'a body.' I panicked and asked whose body, and then they told me it was the soldier."

He later described how the body arrived at the place where it was hidden for years: "I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t refuse. I have a business under my house. They took the body out of the vehicle and brought it into the business." According to him, from that day on the body was kept in a locked refrigerator, with control over the site remaining in his hands: "I kept it locked inside a refrigerator for ten years, and the key was with me the whole time."

The findings of the investigation led security officials to a civilian structure in Gaza City where the body had been held for years. The information obtained during the investigation became one of the central components that made Operation "Red South" possible, under which Oron Shaul’s body was returned to Israel after a decade of intelligence and operational efforts. The operation was carried out shortly before the ceasefire went into effect, and at its conclusion Shaul’s body was brought to burial in Israel.

Now, after the evidentiary foundation against him was completed, the Southern District Attorney’s Office is expected to file an indictment against Hilo attributing serious security offenses to him.