Terrorist who murdered 2 Israeli brothers recently released from prison – against intel agency’s advice

Abdel Kharousha was released some four months ago after serving time for planning terror attacks and was still considered a security threat, specifically in Huwara.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Intelligence officials had wanted to keep in jail the Palestinian terrorist who murdered two brothers in Huwara last week because he was still a security threat, Israel National News reported Wednesday.

Terrorist Abdel Fattah Hussein Kharousha, 49,  was shot dead in an IDF operation in Jenin the previous day.

Kharousha was a senior member of Hamas’ military wing who operated in the Nablus area and had served a cumulative eight years in Israeli jails for terrorism offenses. Conflicting reports about the length of his most recent stint ranges from eight months to over three years for conspiring to implement terror attacks.

He was released in mid-December, despite the fact that senior security figures had warned that he was still determined to attack Jews, the report said. The intelligence agencies reportedly knew that he was specifically planning to kill Jews in Huwara.

Ya’acov and Hallel Yaniv were driving on Highway 60, which passes through the Arab village, when Kharousha rammed his car into theirs, exited his vehicle and shot them at point-blank range.

Meir Indor, director of the Almagor Terror Victims Association, called for a government probe “to examine why his prison term was not extended, despite the fact that they knew he was dangerous,” according to Israel National News. “Someone was asleep at the wheel,” he stated.

Victims’ family ‘thankful’ terrorist was murdered

Ya’acov and Hallel’s parents reacted to Kharousha’s elimination with relief.

“A burden has been lifted from our hearts when we heard that the terrorist was killed and not arrested,” they said in a statement in which they thanked “the security forces who worked day and night to bring him to justice.”

“We are thankful that today, on Purim, the mourning turns to joy. We have been comforted a little by the killing of the terrorist,” they added.

The victims’ grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel Yaniv, told Channel 13, “If he didn’t kill my grandchildren, then he would kill others, so my grandchildren became a holy sacrifice to prevent the murder of other Jews. So it is surely comforting that there will be no more deaths at the hands this contemptible person, whether one, two or 40.”

The Yanivs donated their sons’ corneas to enable four people to regain their sight. The operations took place Wednesday at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikvah.

Bereaved familiesCounterterrorismHuwaraPalestinian terrorSecurity prisonersTerror Victims