As a new condition of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas is reportedly demanding that Israel release arch-terrorists Abdullah Barghouti, Marwan Barghouti, Ibrahim Hamed, Ahmad Sa’adat, Hasan Salameh, and Abbas al-Sayed. According to a Hamas source, Hamas is insistent on the release of these arch-terrorists, even at the expense of derailing the current deal. So, who are these serial murderers that Israel will now be pressured to release?
Abdullah Barghouti is a Hamas operative who is serving 67 life sentences for orchestrating attacks that killed 66 Israelis and wounded over 500 more during the Second Intifada. The attacks he helped orchestrate include: the Sbarro Restaurant attack (Jerusalem, 2001), the Café Moment attack (Jerusalem, 2002), the Sheffield Club attack (Rishon LeZion, 2002), the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria bombing at Hebrew University (Jerusalem, 2002), and the Allenby Street bus bombing (Tel Aviv, 2002). (RELATED: So Let’s Say Israel Agrees to Full Withdrawal and All Hamas’s Demands)
Marwan Barghouti was the head of Tanzim and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, both of which are Fatah-aligned organizations that have committed terrorist attacks against Israel. Barghouti has been imprisoned since 2002 for orchestrating terror attacks that killed five people: a Greek monk near Ma’aleh Adumim, Judea, in 2001, an Israeli civilian near Giv’at Ze’ev, Judea, in 2002, and three Israeli civilians in the Seafood Market Attack in Tel Aviv in 2002. Hamas has attempted to negotiate for his release numerous times, including during the 2011 negotiations to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In 2014, Barghouti called for the Palestinian Authority to stop cooperating with Israel, and called on Palestinians to instigate an “overall and armed resistance” against Israel.
Ibrahim Hamed was Hamas’s military commander in Judea, who had been a member of Hamas since the late 1980s. Hamed was sentenced by Israel in 2012 to 54 life terms for his involvement in terror attacks that killed 46 Israelis during the Second Intifada, in addition to 8 attempted homicides. He helped orchestrate several of the higher profile attacks during the Second Intifada, including: the Zion Square Attack (Jerusalem, 2001); the Café Moment Attack (Jerusalem, 2002); the Sheffield Club Attack (Rishon LeZion, 2002); the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria Bombing at Hebrew University (Jerusalem, 2002); and the Cafe Hillel Attack (Jerusalem, 2003).
Ahmad Sa’adat is the current (and imprisoned) secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization. In 2006, Israel captured him from a Palestinian prison, and in 2008, Israel sentenced him to 30 years in prison for heading a terrorist organization and for his involvement in the murder of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001.
Hasan Salameh is a Hamas operative serving 48 life terms for orchestrating many suicide bombings.
Abbas al-Sayed was convicted in an Israeli court in 2006 for the HaSharon Mall bombing (Netanya, 2001), which killed 35 Israeli civilians and wounded hundreds more, and the Passover Massacre/Park Hotel bombing (Netanya, 2002) that killed 30 Israeli civilians and wounded 140 more.
Hamas has made additional demands of Israel at the 11th hour, each of which will likely be a poison pill to the Jewish State…
But these archterrorists are not the only thing that Hamas is using to hold up Trump’s deal. Hamas has made additional demands of Israel at the 11th hour, each of which will likely be a poison pill to the Jewish State, and likely torpedo the deal:
First, in addition to the release of the above terrorists, Hamas is also demanding the release of the Hamas terrorists from its Nukhba Unit, elite commandos that Israel captured from the October 7 attacks, as well as the bodies of Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Sinwar.
Second, Hamas officials have told Al Jazeera that it wants “guarantees” that Israel will end the war in Gaza and have a “complete withdrawal of the occupation army” from Gaza. This stands in contrast to Israel communicating to the Trump administration that it will maintain a security presence in some strategic points in Gaza following the war, which include “a buffer zone inside Gaza’s borders, the depth and size were not specified; the Philadelphi Corridor along the border with Egypt; and the Tel al-Mantar hill, also known as Tel al-70, east of Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood.”
Third, Hamas is now stating that it intends to stage the release of the hostages and tie those releases to Israeli withdrawals, which contrasts with Trump’s plan for Hamas to release all the hostages within 72 hours.
Fourth, Hamas is also not agreeing to disarm, which is also a condition in Trump’s plan.
Israel may face increased pressure to release arch-terrorists, but the Jewish State must remain insistent that these people remain in prison and that their continued imprisonment be non-negotiable. As the release of terrorists in the Gilad Shalit deal has taught Israel, terrorists that are released go on to commit murder once again (as the case of Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attack, demonstrates). Additionally, Israel should not agree to Hamas’s additional demands, as they will merely allow Hamas to regroup and continue its genocidal forever war against the Jewish State. Only with the assured complete, timely, and unconditional release of all the hostages should Israel even contemplate a ceasefire with genocidal Hamas.
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