24-Oct-13: Dead terrorists and their achievements

Israel's High Court handed down the decision to free
terrorists' bodies to the terrorism-friendly PA

The English language version of the Yediot report that we quoted a few minutes ago has gone up on the Ynet site. It says that Israel is set to deliver the bodies of 36 terrorists to the Palestinian Authority. 

This comes in the wake of a petition filed by terrorist families with Israel's High Court of Justice. Palestinian sources say the terrorists' families were asked to provide DNA samples to complete the process of identification and have been told to show up at military checkpoints on November 5 and November 7 to effect the collection.

The terrorists whose bodies are going to be handed over are said (by Ynet) to include:

• Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri, exploded in central Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant on August 9, 2001, exacting 15 lives, leaving a young woman in a comatose state that continues until today, and injuring 130 others. He is one of several people who murdered our daughter, Malki, 15. All but one are now free.
• Brothers, Imad and Adel Awadallah, considered at the time they were killed in a shoot-out with IDF soldiers near Hebron on September 12, 1998, to be "the two most wanted terrorists of Hamas" 
• Ayat al-Akhras, female bomber aged 18 and a resident of the Bethlehem area; exploded at the entrance to the Kiryat Hayovel supermarket in suburban Jerusalem on March 29, 2002. Her victims included the security guard posted at the door, Haim Smadar, 55, who "spoke Arabic [and] became suspicious after two Arabic women who usually sold vegetables outside the shop entrance had been told by Akhras to leave", as well as Rachel Levy, a 17 year-old girl from the nieghbourhood. Thirty others were injured.
• Sami Fathi Mustafa Basharat, a terrorist killed (according to Ynet) in a firefight with IDF soldiers in 2003. A human rights organization catalogues him as "22 year-old resident of Tammun, Tubas district, killed on 13.03.2003 in Tammun, Tubas district. Killed when participating in hostilities. Additional information: Killed during an exchange of gunfire." This United Nations General Assembly document lists him as one of the "martyrs killed by the Israeli occupying forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".
• Ahmed Faqih, 20, and Mohammed Shaheen, 20, Islamic Jihad terrorist gunmen from the village of Dura. They carried out a shooting attack on the yeshiva at Otniel on December 27, 2002, in which four students were murdered, and many others injured.
• Mahmoud Umdan Salim Qawasmeh, 20, a student at the Palestine Polytechnic University who bombed the Egged Line 37 bus filled with school-children in Haifa on March 5, 2003, killing 17 people. The other Hamas terrorists who planned the bus massacre were freed from prison (despite the multiple life terms to which they were sentenced) in the 2011 Gilad Shalit Transaction
• Abd Al-Karim Tahaineh, another Islamic Jihad terrorist fanatic from Jenin, executed a lethal bus bombing while a passenger on board Egged bus line 823 on March 5, 2002. One person was killed, many passengers on board were injured, as the bus exploded on entering the Afula central bus station.
• Ragheb Ahmed Izzat Jaradat, a terrorist from Jenin in the service of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, exploded on April 10, 2002 in an attack on a bus, Egged Line 960, traveling from Haifa to Jerusalem. The explosion, at Yagur Junction close to Kibbutz Yagur on the outskirts of Haifa, resulted in the deaths of eight people, with 22 more injured.
• 'Ala Sabbah, who executed a car bombing at Hadera's central bus station on May 25, 2001, injuring 65 people
• Daoud Ali Ahmed Abu Sway, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist from the Bethlehem area who carried out a bombing attack near the entrance to the Citadel David Hotel, previously called the Jerusalem Hilton, on December 5, 2001. There were few casualties only because his bomb exploded earlier than intended.

(Much of the detailed info in the Ynet report is unfortunately inaccurate or incomplete. We reviewed their data and checked and corrected where needed; what appears above includes our corrections.)

No word yet on the celebratory aspects that are certain to be in preparation on the far side of the border fence. And concerning our own personal and very bitter experience at the High Court, you are invited to read Frimet Roth's June 2012 article.

UPDATE: Times of Israel ["Bodies of Sbarro bomber and other terrorists set to be released to PA"] has picked up on the story, but raises questions about how many bodies are in the arrangement.