Katz to Fatah terrorist Zubeidi: ‘One mistake and you’ll meet old friends’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday warned released Palestinian arch-terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi against taking up arms again following his release as part of the hostage deal with Hamas.

“Zakaria Zubeidi, you were released in an agreement for the sake of freeing Israeli hostages—one mistake and you’ll meet old friends. We will not accept support for terror,” Katz said in a social media post.

Zubeidi, a former Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander in the Samaria city of Jenin, was released from prison on Jan. 30 under the auspices of the agreement that saw four Israelis and five Thais freed from the Gaza Strip after 482 days in Hamas captivity.

Zubeidi, arrested in 2019 for shooting attacks and known for his 2021 Gilboa Prison escape, holds symbolic significance in Jenin. He was recaptured five days after his prison break.

Since the terrorist leader was not convicted of murder but of other offenses, Zubeidi was not deported but rather released back to Samaria.

His release coincided with the IDF’s “Operation Iron Wall” targeting Iran-backed terrorists in Jenin. The operation includes airstrikes and ground raids.

Security sources told Israel’s Army Radio station on Friday that Zubeidi was still in Ramallah, in southern Samaria, and was expected to remain there until the IDF operation in his hometown concludes.

Overnight on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike near Kabatiya, just south of Jenin, 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, a convicted terrorist from Kabatiya who was released during the November 2023 hostage deal with Hamas, the statement added.

Terrorists released under the auspices of the current agreement with the Gaza-based terrorist group 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,” with the latter being a reference to the Book of Psalms, the government body stated.

Also among the 110 Arabs released on Thursday were Mohammad Abu Warda and Sami Jaradat, who were responsible for terrorist attacks that combined killed 66 Israelis in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Both men were deported to Egypt and banned from returning to Israeli territory.