Barghouti and 3 other senior terrorists will not be released in hostage deal: Ramallah lynching terrorists to go free

News updates on Thursday conflicted, with Qatari media sources falsely reporting that Israel had agreed to free Marwan Barghouti, who planned a number of terror attacks during the intifada and is considered by his supporters as the symbol of the Palestinian movement.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Marwan Barghouti and three other senior Palestinian terrorists will not be released under the ceasefire and hostage deal that took effect early Friday, though several involved in the 2000 Ramallah lynching are among those to be freed.

The lynching, one of the most brutal attacks of the Second Intifada, took place in October 2000 when a Palestinian mob in Ramallah murdered two IDF reservists who had mistakenly entered the city.

The soldiers were beaten and stabbed to death; one terrorist was photographed showing his bloodied hands from a police station window as the crowd cheered below.

Hamas had demanded the release of Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Abbas al-Sayyid, and Hassan Salameh, but Israeli officials removed their names from the final list.

News updates on Thursday conflicted, with Qatar sources falsely reporting that Israel had agreed to free Marwan Barghouti, who planned a number of terror attacks during the intifada and is considered by his supporters as the symbol of the Palestinian movement.

Also excluded were Hakim Awad, who murdered five members of the Fogel family in 2011, and Mahmoud Atallah, convicted in the “prison pimping” scandal for sexually assaulting female guards.

Still, the deal includes dozens of convicted terrorists, some freed in past exchanges and later re-arrested.

Those to be released include Baher Dar, sentenced to 11 life terms for the 2004 Tzrifin suicide bombing; Ibrahim Alikem, who murdered Ita Tzur and her 12-year-old son Efrayim near Ramallah in 1996; and Fares Ghanem, serving nine life sentences for eight murders.

Also to be freed are senior terrorists such as Jafar Al-Zaatari, linked to several suicide bombings; Iyem Kammamji, one of the Gilboa Prison escapees in 2021; and Riyad Al-Amour of Tanzim, convicted for the deaths of nine Israelis including Brig. Gen. Yehuda Edri.

Several Israeli citizens convicted of terrorism, including the perpetrator of the 2002 Line 20 bus attack in Jerusalem, are also on the list.