Report: Palestinian Authority extradites key suspect in 1982 Paris restaurant attack to France

The Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports that the Palestinian Authority extradited Mahmoud al-Atara, known as “Hisham Harb,” to France this morning, citing his status as the main suspect in a 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris.

The attack, in which six people were killed and 22 injured, was the deadliest antisemitic atrocity in France since World War II.

Harb is suspected of leading the attackers in the gun assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris’s Marais district, a historically Jewish quarter. He has been the subject of an international arrest warrant for 10 years.

Last September, reports said Harb, now 70, had been arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces, though this was never officially confirmed by the PA.

According to the report, a hearing had been scheduled for today at a Palestinian court in Ramallah regarding France’s extradition request. However, Harb’s family instead received a call from the Ramallah police chief informing them that he was en route to Jordan, from where he would be extradited to France.