PA President Abbas calls to congratulate Palestinian terrorist released in Gaza deal
Israeli legislators rage at call between Abbas and Fatah prisoner Yasser Abu-Bakr, who was serving multiple life terms, warn that PA cannot be given role in managing postwar Gaza

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made a congratulatory phone call on Saturday to a Palestinian terrorist who was released as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and who had been sentenced to a cumulative 115 years in prison back in 2004.
The phone call drew outrage from Israeli lawmakers, who pointed to it as proof that under Abbas, the PA was not fit to play a role in the governing of postwar Gaza.
A video carried by Palestinian news outlets showed Fatah prisoner Yasser Abu-Bakr taking a call from Abbas after his release.
A native of the West Bank’s Jenin, Abu-Bakr was sentenced in 2004 to a cumulative 115 years in jail for arming a terror cell that shot up a Netanya hotel lobby in March 2002, wounding some 50 people and killing a nine-month-old girl. The cell’s members also killed two police officers and a civilian bystander in subsequent shootouts.

According to reports on social media, Abu-Bakr rebuffed Abbas’s well-wishes and told him that the congratulations were out of place given the high death toll in the Gaza Strip after 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas. The war was sparked by the October 7, 2023 terror assault in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry has said that more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
اتصل رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية لتهنئة الإرهابي والقاتل الجماعي المفرج عنه ياسر أبو بكر، المسؤول عن قتل ثلاثة يهود بينهم طفل يبلغ من العمر تسعة أشهر.
حلم السلام . pic.twitter.com/JqQSbwAbxe— hatem abdulwahid (@HATEMSALEH58) January 25, 2025
The PA president’s call to the convicted terrorist, a member of Abbas’s Fatah faction of the PLO, prompted an outpouring of rage from Israeli lawmakers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“Mahmoud Abbas was and remains an enemy, a terror supporter, a promoter of terror, and the authority he heads was and remains a terrorist organization, and is not a ‘partner’ to anything,” the Religious Zionism chair said, referring to calls for Israel to allow the PA to govern the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas.
“His phone call tonight to a murderer of Jews is a wake-up call to those who still delude themselves about the PA being an alternative to Hamas in Gaza after the war. It won’t happen. Not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.
Ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir voiced a similar sentiment, but also criticized the government more widely for a series of measures it is undertaking as part of the ceasefire-hostage release deal with Hamas, as well as incorrect assessments made in the period leading up to October 7, 2023, regarding the ability or desire of the terror group to attack Israel.
“Close your eyes to the Palestinian terror authority that rewards murderers of Jews and educates for terrorism. Release thousands of murderers and terrorists. Stop the war in Gaza. Withdraw from Netzarim Corridor and the northern Gaza Strip. Transfer bulldozers to Hamas. And of course, don’t forget to tell us they are deterred,” Ben Gvir wrote on X.
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, meanwhile, declared that Israel would not find a partner for the management of postwar Gaza in “Holocaust denier” Abbas and the PA.

“Holocaust denier Abu Mazen is once again showing his true face — a terror supporter who congratulates vile murderers,” said the hawkish opposition lawmaker, using the PA president’s nom de guerre. “Anyone who embraces terrorists with blood on their hands is himself a terrorist, and cannot be a partner in anything, let alone in monitoring the Rafah Crossing.”
Israel has attempted to downplay reports in recent weeks that the PA will play a significant role in postwar Gaza, and that it will be allowed to take control of the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt in future phases of the ceasefire deal.
While the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has partially denied the veracity of the reports, it has admitted that the PA currently plays a limited role at the crossing, providing the stamp on passports allowing Gazans to exit the Strip.
Netanyahu has publicly refused to entertain the idea of the PA ruling postwar Gaza, accusing it of glorifying terror. Yet many in the Israeli security establishment have privately backed such a move due to the lack of any other viable alternative.
Amy Spiro contributed to this report.