IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot took responsibility for the low-profile return of the body of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered three Israelis in 2017 to his family, which then held a massive public funeral, calling the transfer “an error” from which “lessons will be learned.”
The distraught family of Or Arish, one of three Israelis murdered by Nimer Jamal at the entrance to the town of Har Adar near Jerusalem in September of 2017, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after seeing images of a huge funeral honoring Jamal’s murder of Jews.
Eisenkot expressed remorse for the transfer, and said that “lessons will be learned from the investigation conducted on the subject.”
Avi Arish, Or’s father, did not appear appeased by the apology.
“If the defense minister would have lost his son and they would have transferred the body, would they still say, ‘There was an error?’ ” Avi asked following Eisenkot’s apology, according to Yediot Ahronot. “I cannot believe we are being treated like that. We are bleeding with sorrow and suddenly his body is returned? I cannot figure out how such a thing can occur.”
A January 2017 decision of the Security Cabinet concluded that Israel would not release the bodies of Hamas terrorists who “carried out an exceedingly grave attack.”
