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37 terrorists released in 2023 hostage deal re-arrested or killed

The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) has revealed that at least 82% of the Palestinians freed in November 2023 returned to terror.

The entrance to Ofer Prison outside Jerusalem, Jan. 19, 2025. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.
The entrance to Ofer Prison outside Jerusalem, Jan. 19, 2025. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

One in four Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons under the November 2023 Israel-Hamas ceasefire have since been re-arrested or killed, according to data released on Tuesday.

Thirty-three terrorists have been detained by Israeli security forces in the 13 months since their sentences were commuted, while four were eliminated while carrying out attacks, according to Israel Defense Forces Central Command data shared with Channel 13 News.

Earlier this week, the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) revealed that at least 82% of the Palestinians freed in November 2023 returned to terror.

Overnight Saturday, an Israeli airstrike near Qabatiya, just south of Jenin in Samaria, targeted members of a terrorist cell on their way to carry out an “imminent” attack, Israeli security forces said on Sunday.

Among those killed in the strike was Abed al-Hadi Kamil, one of the convicted terrorists released during the 2023 ceasefire.

Since the start of the current ceasefire on Jan. 18—in which Hamas has so far freed 13 Israeli hostages taken during its Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border massacre—Jerusalem has released 583 Arab terrorists.

Terrorists released under the current agreement were sent off with identification bands containing citations from Jewish sources, the Israel Prison Service said on Friday.

The bracelets read, in Arabic and Hebrew, “The eternal people do not forget” and “I pursued my enemies and overtook them,” the latter being a reference to the Book of Psalms.

Among the terrorists released are also murderers serving life sentences for terrorist attacks that killed a combined total of hundreds of Israeli civilians. Under the terms of the deal, terrorists with “blood on their hands” are deported and banned from returning to Israeli territory.

Akiva Van Koningsveld is a news desk editor for JNS.org. Originally from The Hague, he made the big move from the Netherlands to Israel in 2020. Before joining JNS, he worked as a policy officer at the Center for Information and Documentation Israel, a Dutch organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism and spreading awareness about the Arab-Israel conflict. With a passion for storytelling and justice, he studied journalism at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and later earned a law degree from Utrecht University, focusing on human rights and civil liability.
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