First news of the kidnapping
First news of Mashania kidnapping broke on August 23, at 18:00, after a cab driver (M. Z.), a Tul Karm resident, reported to the Tul Karm police that a Jewish passenger was kidnapped from his cab. The driver, who was debriefed immediately by ISA, said he usually transports passengers on the Tul Karm –Kalansawa route, and that day, when he was about to pick up an elder Jewish person and a few women, several youngsters showed up, took the women off, and at gun point forced him and his younger neighbor to drive them with the Jew to the nearby wadi between the villages of Safarin and Beit Lid.

Upon arrival at their destiny the youngsters departed with the Jew telling the driver to be back at 16:00 to take the Jew back to Tul Karm. The driver said that when he returned there, he did not see the Jew there, therefore, he returned to Tul Karm and reported to the police. He affirmed he did not know the kidnappers nor the kidnapped.
At that stage there was no report of an Israeli citizen being missing.

Investigation
Local gold dealers who were summoned to the military administration HQ that evening proved the kidnapping story right. One of them said there is a rumor in town about the kidnapping of a Jew called Abu Musa, who is known to arrive in town for his gold business, and who visited his shop that day. The dealer said Abu Musa usually leaves his car in the Kalansawa gas station and takes a cab to Tul Karm. He further said his cousin noticed two fugitives from the area, Khaled Kato and Abd Elfatah Rashad, who followed the Jew and kidnapped him near one of the gold shops in the town.

Debriefing the shop owner revealed that when Abu Musa visited his shop, two men tried to abduct him in the doorway. He said he took Abu Musa into his shop in order to calm and protect him, and after he made sure the two men were gone he sent him to the cab station.

The cab driver was recalled for debriefing. First he said that Mashania's seven kidnappers operated openly and were not veiled; yet, he did not know any of them. It was evident the driver is hiding something and his story bore contradiction. He was therefore taken into interrogation, where he admitted he identified Rashad as the kidnapping organizer. His identity was confirmed by the driver's neighbor who was present in the car.

Khaled Marmash - a lead to the kidnappers

The two men mentioned above were well known to the ISA, and an unsuccessful attempt to detain them was made a day before the kidnapping (Aug. 22) for their part in local terror activity and disruption of order. The new information on their involvement in the kidnapping has certainly enhanced their arrest. In order to get to them it was first decided to arrest Khaled Marmash, a Tul Karm resident known as Rashad's friend.

On Aug. 24, at 04:00 am, Marmash reported to the military administration HQ. He disclosed that after the rumors spread in town about the kidnapping, he met with Rashad who told him of his involvement together with Khaled Kato and other young men from the area, among them Subhi Khalaf, resident of the village Abush.

Marmash also disclosed he understood from Rashad that Mashania is held in the village of Abush and said Mashania's car was moved from the gas station in Kalansawa to Tul Karm, a fact corroborated with the station owner, and later that day the car was located, burnt down.

Searches and release of the kidnapped
In light of information indicating the possibility of the kidnapped being held in the village of Abush, it was decided to set out to find him or the perpetrators there. In the course of the search, Subhi Khalaf was located, and at first denied any link to the kidnapping. A strenuous interrogation on the night of Aug. 24-25 brought Khalaf to admit Rashad asked him to purchase food and follow him to a dried well on the outskirts of the village Abush, into which Mashania was abseiled. Khalaf agreed to go out and point out the well's location.

By then IDF and ISA preparations were already underway for Mashania's rescue. Then Chief of Central command, Gen. Itzhak Mordechai took part in the rescue plans. On the morning of Aug. 25, at 10:30 in the morning, a Special Police Unit (SWAT) took off together with Subhi Khalaf to where Mashania was kept; Abush village was put under curfew.

Khalaf lead them to a water well and upon arrival he removed a pile of twigs, uncovering a narrow aperture to a pit five meters deep. Mashania was found in the pit safe and sound. Later he told that a day earlier he heard soldiers nearby the pit but did not dare ask for help, fearing his kidnappers' retaliation.

Arrest of the kidnappers
Following the rescue, both fugitives, Rashad and Kato were detained while dining in one of their collaborators' apartment. The kidnappers said in their interrogation they did not plan the abduction; only once they took hold of Mashania did they consider the opportunity to bargain for a prisoners deal releasing Sheikh Obeid, a senior Lebanese Hizballa operative detained in Israel, and of Nidal Zalum, a PIJ activist from Ramallah who committed a stabbing attack in Jaffa St. in Jerusalem (May 3, 1989), killing two Israelis and wounding three.

Mashania's kidnappers said they took his car keys from him and sent to bring it to Tul Karm. Their initial intention was to sell it but eventually they feared it would serve as a lead to uncovering them, and thus set it on fire.

The kidnappers, some of whom were PIJ activists and some former Fatah shock troopers, admitted to a series of disruption of public order in Tul Karm as well as harassing suspects in collaboration with Israel. Rashad also admitted to attacking a Jew in the market of Tul Karm two weeks earlier.

Arrest of all suspects was completed in the following months (Oct. 1989), with the arrest of the head of the cell, Rashad Jabara and his deputy Mohammad Salah Sifi.

Upon successfully concluding this case, Government Secretary at the time, Elyakim Rubinstein, delivered a letter of gratitude to ISA Director and to IDF Chief of Staff (Aug. 27, 1989).