The 32 terrorists that were released to Judea and Samaria are all dangerous people and could pose a major security risk for Israel in the future.
By Rachel Avraham
Like all Israelis, I was delighted when I saw Keith Segal, Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas return to Israel, after spending 484 days in Hamas captivity. I will be even more happy when Yarden’s wife Shiri, and their two young children, Kfir and Ariel, are also freed. On October 7, 2023, the abduction of the Bibas family was broadcast live by the Hamas Telegram channel, highlighting the cruelty of the Hamas terror organization. In the video, Yarden is being abducted while wounded in the head, while his wife Shiri was taken away together with her two red-head children, then age 9 months and 4 years. Since then, there has been no sign of life for Shiri and her two small children. Hamas claimed they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but this has not been confirmed independently.
To release Yarden Bibas without his wife and children makes me worry very much about their safety. As soon as possible, Israel simply must get confirmation about their present status. Yarden Bibas will never be at peace until this confirmation is made. However, the return of Yarden Bibas to Israel is of great importance in and of itself. The video documentation of the abduction of the Bibas family has become one of the symbols of the October 7 massacre and the present hostage crisis. However, as much as I want each and every hostage to come home alive, I am greatly opposed to the fact that so many terrorists have been released to Judea and Samaria, which may very well be the next theater of war for the State of Israel.
On Saturday, 183 terrorists were released, Arutz Sheva reported. Fortunately, most of them, 143 in total, were transferred to Gaza. Another eight were deported to Egypt. However, 32 were sent to Judea and Samaria, and received a heroes welcome in Ramallah. These 32 will be a ticking time bomb for the State of Israel, as Iran is already gearing up to prop up Hamas in overthrowing the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, so that they can launch their next phase of the war from there.
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and all of the proxies of Iran have accepted a cease-fire for Gaza, but will continue fighting Israel from Judea and Samaria. Hamas from there will attempt to wage more terror attacks like October 7. Hamas has already threatened to do exactly that. MEMRI recently reported that Mohammad Al-Najjar, head of Hamas’s Youth Department, told Iranian TV that “October 7 Will Be Repeated [With Attacks] From The West Bank, Lebanon, Egypt, The East, From All Directions.” But to get their terrorists back, they will agree at the same time to a cease-fire in Gaza, which will fall apart the second that they regroup and rebuild there, or maybe even before that. However, most of the emphasis will be on fighting against Israel from Judea and Samaria, which has not been destroyed like Gaza has.
The 32 terrorists that were released to Judea and Samaria are all dangerous people. They include Sami Subah, a member of the PLO from Tulkarm, who fired on IDF forces during the Second Intifada in the city and was sentenced to 28 years for attempted murder. Another terrorist that was released was Hossam Shaheen, a Fatah member from the village of Sawahra near Jerusalem. He was sentenced to 22 years for shooting attacks targeting Israeli vehicles and was involved in throwing a hand grenade at a Border Police jeep, and was also involved in a conspiracy to send a suicide bomber to Jerusalem.
Other terrorists that were released were Salim Awad, a Fatah member involved in planning the attack in the settlement of Homesh in 2002, where three Israelis were killed, who was sentenced to 22 years; Ayman Awouda, a Fatah member from Gaza, was serving a life sentence for planning shooting and bombing attacks against IDF forces. He served as the leader of the Fatah prisoners in Israeli prisons until the October 7 massacre. Hossam Shaheen, a Fatah member from Bethlehem, was sentenced to 22 years for planning shooting attacks against IDF forces.
While all of the terrorists listed here are members of Fatah, this does not make them less of a security risk for Israel. It is important to remember that while Fatah is a rival terrorist organization of Hamas, they still had no problem uniting with Hamas in order to participate in the October 7 massacre. Indeed, not all of the terrorists who implemented the October 7 massacre were Hamas members. Some of those responsible were from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and other terror groups.
To date, Fatah refuses to condemn the October 7 massacre. To the contrary, Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of Fatah’s Central Committee, justified the October 7 terror attack by Hamas that massacred, butchered, raped, and mutilated 1,200 while abducting over 250 to Gaza, as an act “in the context of the defensive war our people are waging.” While more recently Fatah has stated that they oppose Iran’s efforts to utilize Hamas to bring the same destruction that we witnessed in Gaza to Judea and Samaria, at the same time, Fatah glorifies the terrorists that murdered Jews as “heroes” and grants murderers with Jewish blood on their hands the red carpet treatment. Thus, we cannot rule out the possibility that these 32 terrorists won’t unite with Hamas in attacking Israel in the future. For that reason, it is a major security risk that they were released to Judea and Samaria, a mistake that should not be repeated.
