Shin Bet head Ronen Bar presented data to the ministers in the security cabinet on Friday, stating that “82% of of those released in the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011 returned to terrorism,” and that 15% of them carried out attacks themselves after their release in the deal, or planned the attacks.
Israel’s security cabinet voted to recommend the government approve the outline for the hostage deal on Friday.
The terror activities the released prisoners, which were just over 1,000 released, engaged in activities such as contributing to terrorist funds as well as aiding and providing information to terrorist groups, Bar said.
He also said that the release of terrorists is expected to increase the motivation to carry out attacks in the West Bank, Israeli media reported.
Bar said that the danger does not necessarily stem from terrorists being released as part of the deal, but from the atmosphere that will be created in the West Bank as a result, which will make terror organizations want to attain additional “achievements.”
The Shin Bet chief noted that for this reason, the IDF must increase activity against terrorists and terror infrastructure in the West Bank in parallel with the implementation of the deal, Maariv quoted Bar.
IDF Lt.-Gen. Maurice Hirsch told the Post this week that “By 2014, 50% of those released in Judea and Samaria almost immediately returned to terrorism.”
Instances of detaining terrorists released in the Shalit deal
Instances of engaging terrorists who were released in the Shalit deal include one that occurred in June 2014, in which two suspects, father and son – Ziad Hassan Awad and Izz al-Din Ziad Hassan Awad – the former having been released in the deal, were detained by Israeli forces for their involvement in a shooting attack that happened on Passover eve that killed a police officer.
A year prior, in May 2013, the Shin Bet detained Hamas operative Bakr Atallah Samih Sa’ad, who planned to carry out terrorist attacks, after an investigation revealed that he went to Jordan to meet with Hisham Abd al-Qader Ibrahim Hijaz, another Hamas terrorist operative who was released in that deal.
Hijaz was responsible for the deaths of ten Israeli civilians and soldiers before his arrest. He was supposed to serve ten life sentences before being released in the deal.
Gilad Schalit was released from five years of Hamas captivity in 2011 in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Among the aforementioned who were released in the deal, Yahyah Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attack, was also released in this deal.
Schalit was captured in 2006 when several Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel and attacked IDF bases near the border crossing at Kerem Shalom, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding four others.
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