Israel frees over 600 prisoners after return of 4 hostage bodies, including veteran terrorists and murderers

After Hamas released the bodies of four slain Israeli hostages overnight, Israel began releasing around 640 Palestinian prisoners, some of which were deported to Gaza and Egypt.

The prisoners had been slated for release as part of last weekend’s exchange of hostage bodies for prisoners.

However, after Hamas conducted a vile “release ceremony” around the coffins ostensibly containing the bodies of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz, before sending the body of an unidentified woman instead of Shiri Bibas, Israel halted their release.

Late Wednesday night, Hamas agreed to transfer the last four hostage bodies remaining on the list of 33 hostages to be freed during the first part of the deal. The transfer was conducted without ceremony, via Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Of the over 600 Palestinian prisoners, some 460 had been arrested during the IDF’s ground operation in Gaza, including two dozen women and minors.

They had been detained during raids, many of them when Israeli troops encountered them in Hamas compounds. However, they were found not to have been fighters or have direct affiliation with the terror group.

This group includes Hussam Abu Safiya, the former director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza.

In addition, Israel freed 71 prisoners serving life sentences and 60 more serving long sentences for involvement in the murder of one or more Israelis, according to Ynet News.

This includes the murderer of Ari Fuld, Khalil Jabarin Abu Hamid. Hillel Fuld, the brother of Ari, recently told ALL ISRAEL NEWS that the news of Hamid’s release was a “gut punch.”

The release also includes 47 prisoners who were rearrested after their first release from prison in the 2011 Shalit deal, which also included killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Overall, 100 prisoners were deported via Egypt, 457 were returned to Gaza, 37 to Judea and Samaria, and five prisoners were released in East Jerusalem.

According to Al Jazeera, the release of two dozen minors and young prisoners was delayed until the bodies of the four Israeli hostages had been identified.

Among the prisoners who were rearrested after the Shalit deal, and freed again on Wednesday, is Nael al-Bargouthi, the longest-serving Palestinian terrorist in the Israeli prison system.

The 65-year-old Bargouthi was first arrested in 1978 for murdering an Israeli bus driver. After serving 33 years, he was released in 2011 but was arrested again in 2014 and sentenced to life again.

After initially joining Fatah, Bargouthi switched his allegiance to Hamas while in jail, and was seen as one of its most influential members in prison. He was reportedly deported to Egypt.

Like many others of the original Shalit prisoners, Bargouthi’s rearrest came during a broad sweep among Hamas members after a Hamas cell kidnapped and murdered the three Israeli teens, Gilad Shaer, Eyal Yifrach, and Naftali Fraenkel in 2014.

Alaa al-Din Baziyan was also rearrested on suspicion of his involvement in the teens’ kidnapping. He was arrested in 1979 and then released and rearrested several times over the next decades, spending a total of 42 years in prison.

Another member of this group is Samer Mahroum, first sentenced in 1986 for the murder of Yeshiva student Eliyahu Amadi in Jerusalem.

Other notable terrorists in the release include Salama Qatawi, a senior Hamas official; Bilal Abu Ghanem, serving three life terms for murdering Chaim Haviv, Alon Govberg and Richard Lakin in a Jerusalem bus in 2015; and Omar al-Zaben, a senior commander in Hamas’s military wing who was sentenced to 27 life terms plus 25 years for directing multiple attacks that killed 27 Israelis.