Israel has returned to the Palestinian Authority (PA) the bodies of four terrorists who carried out deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis, including the body of the terrorist who blew himself up in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001.The ever so peaceful Palestinian Authority gave these terrorists an honorable military welcome.
The PA-based Safa news agency reported on Tuesday that the terrorists whose bodies were returned include brothers Adel and Imad Osallah, Hamas terrorists who planned attacks against Israel and who were eliminated near Hevron by IDF soldiers in 1998.
In addition to Izz al-Din al-Masri, the Sbarro suicide bomber, Israel also reportedly handed the body of suicide bomber Tawfiq Mahamid, who carried out a suicide attack west of Umm al-Fahm and who belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the so-called “military wing” of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
The attack at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in August of 2001 was one of the deadliest terror attacks in Israel’s history.
15 people were killed in the Sbarro attack, including five members of the Schijveschuurder family from the community of Neria in Binyamin.
Arnold and Frimet Roth are the parents of one of the Sbarro's attack victims, their daughter Malki. They write:
For the record, the Israeli decision to hand over the body of Al-Masri, the human bomb whose explosion caused so much devastation, grief and ongoing pain to so many Israelis, was made on the basis of zero consultation with the families of his victims. There was also no pre-hand-over official notification to the news media or to the judicial system as far as we know. The Arab media are the sole source of the news.
...Stand by for more of the same as the Palestinian Authority, probably with its new business partner Hamas (who long ago claimed al-Masri as one of its heroes), prepares to celebrate the life and death of the human bomb who murdered 15 innocents. In fact, it's begun...
(And this side question: Will the world's most important organization of Protestant churches take part in the celebration? Will they condemn it? Or sit on the fence? Does their theology teach that "freedom with justice and dignity" applies to people like our daughter's cold-blooded killers and those who stand proudly with them? But not to the victims?)
And prepare - as we will - to scour the news reports for expressions of disgust and rejection from within the Arabic-speaking world for this upcoming latest chapter in the orgy of hate and bloodshed. But be ready to wait a long, long time.