New revelations released by Hamas in recent days, through material leaked to Al Jazeera’s investigative program The Hidden Is Greater, shed additional light on one of the organization’s most prominent kidnapping operations of the 1990s – the abduction and murder of Sergeant Nachshon Wachsman, a resident of Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood. According to the newly presented testimonies, Mohammed Deif, who was already commanding Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and oversaw the operation’s planning and execution, used the code name “the sheep” to conceal the kidnapping itself and the location where the captured soldier was being held. Deif was killed in July 2024.
How Was Nachshon Wachsman Kidnapped and What Was Mohammed Deif’s Role?
On October 9, 1994, Sergeant Nachshon Wachsman, a soldier serving in the Golani Brigade, was kidnapped at the Tayasim Junction near Yehud. Four Hamas militants disguised as religious Jews pulled up beside him in a rented vehicle. They quickly overpowered him and transported him to a house in Bir Nabala, north of Jerusalem, close to his home.
The kidnappers demanded the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and 200 other prisoners, threatening to execute Wachsman within days if their demands were not met. The latest revelations claim that Deif himself was the masked figure appearing in the video announcing the kidnapping, displaying Wachsman’s identity card and presenting Hamas’s demands. If accurate, the footage would represent his first known appearance on camera and one of his rare recorded public appearances, despite his concealed face.
According to the new testimony of released Hamas operative Jihad Yaghmour, one of the participants in the operation, the plan was to keep Wachsman in the Jerusalem area while releasing the claim of responsibility and the video from Gaza, misleading Israeli intelligence about his actual whereabouts. Yaghmour personally smuggled the videotape and the soldier’s documents beneath his clothing through Israeli and Palestinian checkpoints before delivering them in Gaza. That night, he spoke with Deif by telephone and referred to the captive soldier using the code name “the sheep”, without revealing either his real name or his location.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service arrested Yaghmour, who disclosed the location of the house. On the evening of October 14, shortly before the kidnappers’ ultimatum expired, an elite Sayeret Matkal unit stormed the building. The door was heavily reinforced, and the initial explosion failed to open it completely, costing the assault team the element of surprise. The militants shot Wachsman at point-blank range while he was bound and also killed the unit’s commander, Captain Nir Poraz. Nine soldiers were wounded.
The three militants inside the house – Salah Jadallah, who had been sent from Gaza by Deif, Hassan (Yasser) Natsheh and Abd al-Karim Badr – were killed during the exchange of fire. Jihad Yaghmour was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released in October 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, after approximately 17 years in prison, and deported to Turkey.
The latest disclosures, based on Hamas testimonies, highlight Deif’s central role in the planning, deception and use of a secret code name. They also bring renewed attention to a failed rescue operation that exacted a devastating price – the deaths of a young soldier and the courageous officer who led the attempt to save him.
