Israel set to release 23 terrorists’ bodies to PA

Israel is set to return the bodies of 23 Palestinian terrorists to the Palestinian Authority on Friday, the IDF said.

The transfer marks the largest handover yet in three months of Palestinian stabbing, car ramming and shooting attacks against Israelis in which many of the attackers themselves have been killed. 17 of the terrorists came from the Hebron area, a major flashpoint in the recent three-month-old wave of violence.

The handover will occur at 2 p.m. Friday. The bodies will be transferred to PA security forces.

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Two more bodies are slated for return early next week.

The move follows a debate within Israel over the wisdom of holding on to the bodies, with supporters noting that funerals for the terrorists have turned into mass rallies at which speakers call for new terror attacks. The IDF and other security services opposed withholding the bodies, saying the practice drove greater anger among Palestinians and undermined PA security forces who worked with Israel to prevent the attacks.

Israel returned the bodies of three additional terrorists on Tuesday.

The Palestinian news agency Ma’an identified them as Bassem Salah, Mazen Aribe, and Iyad Ides.

Salah, a 38-year-old Palestinian from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, stabbed a Border Police officer at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate at the end of November, lightly wounding him. He was shot dead by officers at the scene.

Aribe, a relative of senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat, was killed in early December while carrying out a shooting attack near Jerusalem.

Ides, from the West Bank city of Hebron, was shot and killed last week while trying to stab soldiers near a checkpoint with a screwdriver.

The Defense Ministry permits the return of bodies of terrorists killed at the scene by Israeli security forces on the condition that the funerals do not become mass gatherings, for fear that they will descend into violence.

Seven bodies were returned earlier this week, including that of Wissam Tawabte, who murdered 21-year-old Hadar Buchris in November.

According to Ma’an, Palestinians say Israel still holds as many as 50 bodies of terrorists — a figure apparently offered before the announcement of Friday’s transfer of 23 — some one-third of them from the Hebron area.

For over three months Palestinians have carried out near daily attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces.

Some 25 Israelis have been killed and dozens injured. Among the Palestinians, over 120 have been killed, most of them as they carried out attacks, and others in violent clashes with security forces.