SAN DIEGO — Micah Koubi, 78, a former chief interrogator for Israel’s Shin Bet, is touring Southern California to raise money for the Beit Halochem (House of the Warriors) rehabilitation centers. More and more Israeli soldiers are being killed or wounded in Gaza. From having extensively interrogated Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar in 1989, Koubi knows that Sinwar wants to kill as many Israeli soldiers and civilians as possible. So, there was a sense of urgency as Kobi spoke by telephone from Los Angeles about his mission to help raise nearly $40 million for a fifth Beit Halochem center in Ashdod to serve the beleaguered southern region of Israel.
The center in Ashdod, when completed, will be able to treat 10,000 patients a year recovering from PTSD and from amputations of arms and legs, among other maladies, Koubi said. He estimated that there are 4,000 wounded soldiers requiring treatment since Israel sent its forces into Gaza in response to Hamas terrorists crossing into Israel on Oct. 7th and murdering approximately 1,200 people. By the end of 2024, he projects the figure may exceed 12,500 Israelis in need of treatment. The Israeli government provides only 15 percent of the four existing Beit Halochem centers’ revenue; the rest must come from fees that the patients themselves pay and from donations. Koubi was at a private fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Sunday night; earlier in the week he met with members of the large Israeli community in Los Angeles and spoke at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino.
In 1989, Israel rounded up 500 Hamas members, including its now deceased founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Yahya al-Sinwar, then a lieutenant to Yassin, said Koubi whose family has lived in Tiberias since the 18th century. Growing up, Koubi learned how to speak seven Arabic dialects, very useful in conducting interrogations of Arab prisoners. Sheikh Yassin was quite forthcoming about Hamas’s goals and organizations, explaining that no matter how long he was in Israeli prison, he eventually would be able to return to Gaza and rebuild the Hamas organization. Koubi said Yassin told him that Sinwar had two major roles in the Hamas organization at that time. First, he was in charge of what Yassin called the “glory unit,” in charge of assassinating Palestinians who were believed to be collaborators with Israel. His second role was as head of the education department.
Sinwar initially refused to talk to Koubi, telling the interrogator, “Kill me, I don’t want to say any words,” according to Koubi. However Yassin counseled Sinwar to cooperate, avoid the possibility of torture, and live to fight another day. After that, Sinwar told Koubi how he used a machete to kill 12 Palestinians who were in league with Israel. He also explained how children in Hamas were indoctrinated to become shahids, martyrs to the cause. Kindergarteners were given plastic knives and drilled in mock competitions to see who could kill more Jews, Koubi said. “When they grew older, they went to a camp of Hamas where they trained with guns, and rifles. When they were 14, they taught them how to become suicide bombers.”
Koubi said that Sinwar originated the idea of kidnaping and murdering two Israeli soldiers, Avi Saportas and Ilan Sadon, in 1989. Yassin was released from prison in 1997, Koubi said, because “King Hussein [of Jordan] told Bibi [Netanyahu] that if Yassin were not released, he would kill two Mossad agents in Jordan.” Upon Yassin’s release, Sinwar became the head of the Hamas unit inside the prison and Saleh al-Arouri, who was assassinated in Beirut at the beginning of this year, was his deputy.
Koubi said Sinwar told messengers that Hamas must send a mission to make contacts in Iran. “The Iranians agreed to help Hamas, gave them lots of money, sent 150 trainers through the tunnels from Egypt, and they trained the Nukhbah unit (naval commandos). which devised the 7th of October attack,” Koubi said. Sinwar told Koubi “that he planned to enter Israeli settlements and kill the Jews as much as he can. … Their plan was to enter into the settlements, be there a few months” and from there ready attacks on Israeli cities to the north.
Sinwar was released from prison in 2011 in the deal Israel made for the return of kidnaped soldier Gilad Shalit, which Koubi said was “a big mistake.”
“They shouldn’t have sent him out of prison,” Koubi said. “I knew that he would make a lot of trouble. Sinwar had murderous eyes. He hates Israelis, Jews, and the ‘infidels’ — a very deep hating. He knew the Koran by heart and the charter of Hamas by heart. He told me even that they were planning to kidnap more Israeli soldiers. He was right unfortunately.”
Asked how Sinwar has been able to avoid capture, Koubi said, “to his side, he is like Salah Ha-Din,” known in the West as Saladin, the 12th century Muslim general who fought the European Christian Crusaders. “He thinks he is like Salah Ha-Din,” Koubi added. “He is now a hero of Hamas, hero of Islam, and he is now ready to become a shahid–that is what I think.” Koubi speculated that Sinwar is now at the deepest level of the tunnel network that runs throughout Gaza. “They are built at 30 meters, 60 meters and 90 meters below the surface and he is waiting to be a shahid. I think Israeli forces know where he is but we have to take care because of the hostages. He has a little group of hostages, 20 or 30, not more, with him. I think he has been directing torture. He doesn’t care about the hostages because he knows he is going to die. If it were up to him, he wouldn’t negotiate about the hostages–that is what I think, but we must do everything we can to free them as soon as possible.”
Koubi said he thinks Sinwar and “all the Hamas” have to be killed “to save lives for the next 50 years, not only for Israel but for the whole world.” He said Hamas is the same as ISIS, the radical group that tried to establish its own state in the Middle East from which to use violence to build a worldwide caliphate.
Asked what will prevent Hamas or a group like it from springing up after the war in Gaza ends, Koubi responded “Hamas can be destroyed, but nobody can destroy an idea. The capability we must destroy as soon as possible.” He wants Israel to be in charge of post-war security in Gaza so that Israelis can return to their towns and kibbutzim adjacent to the border. He favors creating a new Palestinian government for Gaza, devoid of Hamas and differentiated from the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank. He said the Palestinian Authority, under President Mahmoud Abbas, “is like the Hamas. He gives money to every shahid who attacks Israelis. We can’t work with him.”
Koubi was decorated by the President of Israel with a Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of his work in the Sayeret Matkal unit of the IDF, which carries out special operations beyond the borders of Israel. He suffered back injuries during one secret mission, leading him to join the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization upon his discharge from the IDF. The Shin Bet recruited him, promoting him eventually to the chief interrogator of Arab prisoners. Today, he is an executive with the Beit Halochem which operates rehabilitation centers in Beersheba, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv and which is in the process of building another center in Ashdod.
Donald H. Harrison
San Diego Jewish World
Publisher and Editor
www.sdjewishworld.com
(619)265-0808
sdheritage@cox.net