Reports: Israel rearrests Palestinian terror convict released in latest hostage deal

Nurit Yohanan is The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent

Palestinian prisoners, released by Israel, gesture as they arrive on a bus at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip early on February 27, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Illustration: Palestinian prisoners, released by Israel, gesture as they arrive on a bus at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip early on February 27, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Palestinian media reports that this morning, Israel arrested Murad al-Ajlouni, a Palestinian prisoner freed in a hostage-release and ceasefire deal earlier this year, in Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem.

Al-Ajlouni was initially arrested in 2002 and sentenced to three life sentences plus 20 years for assisting the terrorist who carried out a 2002 attack at the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv, in which three people were killed. He was affiliated with the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed faction linked to Fatah.

In July, four Palestinians who had been freed in the hostage deal were also rearrested, among them Samah al-Shobaki, a member of the Islamic Jihad terror group who had been serving a life sentence until he was freed in the deal.

Israeli authorities have not yet commented on the reports.

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