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Thu, Jan 06, 2011 | IsraelNationalNews [2] | By Maayana Miskin
Mourners gather around the bodies of four Israelis killed in a terrorist attack, during the funeral in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Bet Haggai near Hebron September 1, 2010. The four Israeli civilians were shot dead in Judea and Samaria on Tuesday in an attack that Islamist Palestinian terror group Hamas warned it was just the beginning and worse was still to come. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
PA Leader Abbas Releases Hamas Terrorist Just 4 Months After Murdering Four Israelis
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided to release a Hamas terrorist from prison just four months after he and other Hamas gunmen ambushed and killed four Israeli civilians [3] (all residents of Bet Haggai) in their car at the Beni Naim junction near Kiryat Arba Tuesday night, Aug. 31, 2010.
Arutz Sheva reports that just four months ago Israelis were shocked by the murder of four Jews near the town of Beit Chaggai in Judea. The four were shot at close range by Palestinian Authority terrorists.
Those killed were Yitzchak and Talya Imes, parents of six; Kochava Even-Chaim, who was survived by her husband and a young daughter, and newlywed Avishai Shindler.
On Thursday, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided to release one of the killers. Wael Bitar of Hevron was let out of a PA prison along with five other Hamas terrorists, according to Voice of Israel radio.
Bitar was also involved in a suicide bombing that murdered one person in Dimona and wounded several others.
The PA arrested him once in 2008, the year of the bombing, but later released him.
Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council, called on Israeli troops to make up for the PA’s actions by capturing the released killer as soon as possible.
“The delusion that Abbas plans to fight terrorism has been shattered yet again by the PA’s ‘revolving door,’” he declared.
The PA has often demanded that Israel release or pardon terrorists as a “good-will gesture” during negotiations. Abbas has repeatedly said that his ultimate goal is the release of all PA terrorists from Israeli prisons, including those guilty of multiple murders.
A special PA ministry provides for terrorists in Israeli prisons, sending them money [4], with more given to those who have committed more serious offenses. The PA ‘Minister of Prisoners Affairs’ recently rewarded [5] a woman for having raised four sons who all murdered Israelis.
Among those who pressured Abbas to release Bitar was Israeli-Arab Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the extremist Islamic Movement. Salah has been arrested for anti-Israel incitement on several occasions, and in May participated in an attempt by Turkish pro-terror activists to forcibly break the IDF naval blockade of Hamas.
Qatari leaders pushed for Bitar’s release as well.