Palestinian terrorists serving life sentences for heinous crimes among 110 freed by Israel in cease-fire swap
Palestinians serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis were among 110 prisoners who were freed on Thursday during a tense hostage swap in the second week of the cease-fire between the Jewish state and Hamas. High-profile terrorists and other convicts received a hero’s welcome from hundreds of Palestinians waving flags and holding signs as they were bussed back to the West Bank community center in Ramallah.The prisoners released were all men, ranging in age from 15 to 69, with nearly two dozen serving life sentences for more egregious crimes transferred to Egypt before further deportation. These are some of the worst of the worst released since the cease-fire deal went into effect on Jan.19: Zakaria Zubeidi, a high-profile terrorist commander and theater director, notoriously busted out of an Israeli prison in 2021 and is hailed as a Palestinian icon. Zubeidi led the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, an armed group affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority.
Under his command, the militants carried out dozens of deadly attacks against Israelis between 2000 and 2005, during a time known as the Second Intifada.When the uprising ended in 2006, Zubeidi started The Freedom Theater in his hometown of Jenin in the West Bank in order to promote what he described as cultural resistance against Israel. He was locked up for years in Israeli prison for the early 2000s terrorist attacks, but after being freed, was arrested again in 2019 and charged in connection with several shootings targeting buses taking Israeli settlers into the West Bank. He was awaiting trial when he and five other prisoners infamously tunneled their way out of the Gilboa maximum security prison in Northern Israel – a stunt that established him as a Palestinian folk hero despite being caught days later. Hamas militant Mohammed Abu Ward was serving 48 life sentences – one of the longest ever issued – for orchestrating multiple suicide bomb...