Israeli authorities have rearrested a Palestinian terrorist released from prison a few months ago as part of a hostage deal with Hamas, the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit said on Thursday. He was taken into custody on suspicion of bomb-making.
Detectives from the Judea District Crime Fighting Unit and National Counterterrorism Unit officers from the Shai (Judea and Samaria) District raided his Bethlehem home on Wednesday night and detained him for questioning.
The terrorist was initially arrested about a year ago after being caught with 25 explosive devices that he had made and supplied to terror operatives, prompting a major criminal investigation, according to the statement.
In exchange for releasing hostages kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, Jerusalem has let thousands of Palestinian security prisoners go free, including some convicted of mass-casualty terror attacks.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, an Israel-based media research institute, 160 of the 250 Palestinian terrorists released as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Hamas that began Oct. 10 became millionaires during their incarceration via the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” program. Total payments to the group by the P.A. amounted to at least 229.5 million shekels, excluding family stipends that likely raised the figure further, according to PMW.
Egyptian officials have evacuated from a Cairo luxury hotel more than 150 Palestinian terrorists freed under President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace initiative, following an investigation by The Daily Mail published on Oct. 25 exposing their presence among British airline crews and Western tourists at the Renaissance Marriott facility.
As part of the hostage deal, Jerusalem agreed to free 1,950 Palestinian security prisoners, including 1,700 Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7, 2023. Among them were 250 serving life sentences for deadly attacks.
David Mencer, a spokesman for Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, told the Daily Mail on Oct. 25: “These men are terrorists, convicted of bombing buses, murdering students and kidnapping teenagers. Israel freed them not to reward evil but because we value human life above all.”
“A bitter price, but one our people have paid across the ages to reclaim kin from the hands of Jew-haters,” the government spokesman added.
