(JTA) – A newly released report details aborted Israeli plans to capture the former head of Hamas’s military wing, in order to exchange him in a prisoner swap with captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

The planned 2008 operation, according to the report in the Times of Israel, would have nabbed Ahmed Jabari, formerly the head of Hamas’s military wing, as he was driving to visit one of his two wives. The IDF then planned to offer Jabari in exchange for Shalit, whom Hamas had captured two years earlier.

The operation involved special forces and the top brass of Israel’s defense establishment. Soldiers were dispatched to Gaza, but were unable to complete the operation when Jabari’s car made an unexpected turn.

After indirect negotiations with Hamas, Shalit was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011. In November 2012, Israel assassinated Jabari at the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense, an eight-day conflict with Hamas.