Dirar Abu-Sisi, a deputy engineer of the Gaza Strip's sole power plant, who disappeared from a train in Ukraine in February 2011 and later turned out in an Israeli prison, has confessed to aiding terrorist organizations, the Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya reported on Saturday with a reference to Israeli media.
Documents presented to a district court in Beersheba indicated that Abu-Sisi has been a member of Hamas since 2002, and the organization treated him as an artillery expert, the newspaper says. Abu-Sisi himself claims that he did not know anything about explosives and obtained all information from the Internet.
"We lacked trained personnel. Many militants did not even know how to handle weapons," he said.
"Abu-Sisi first worked on improving improvised missiles. He was also present at the tests of a new missile in Khan Yunis. In addition, he himself built a missile with a range of 45 kilometers, but it exploded after being launched. He was later instructed to set up a military academy to train terrorists," the newspaper said.
"Militants were trained in mosques by university professors, Education Ministry employees, and businessmen. And we sent the best students to Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Iran to practice," the newspaper quotes Abu-Sisi as saying.
Abu-Sisi pled guilty and regretted what he has done during an investigation, Segodnya said.
Abu-Sisi went missing in Ukraine on February 18, 2011. On February 25, the Palestinian Interior Ministry forwarded an official address to the Ukrainian interior minister regarding his disappearance. It was reported in early March that Abu-Sisi was in an Israeli prison, which Israel officially confirmed later.
Abu-Sisi is married to a Ukrainian woman. After having spent 12 years in Gaza, he came to Ukraine in February 2011 to apply for Ukrainian citizenship.
