JERUSALEM – Israel last week granted a complete pardon to a handful of senior terrorists, including the leaders of a terror cell responsible for a 2006 suicide bombing in which an American teenager and 10 other civilians were murdered, according to information obtained by The Jewish Press. Last June, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert granted temporary amnesty to 178 terrorists on condition they disarm, refrain from attacks and spend three months in PA detention facilities and another three months confined to the West Bank city in which they reside. If the terrorists completed their side of the deal, Olmert’s office would grant them permanent amnesty, allowing the jihadists freedom of movement in the West Bank and taking them off Israel’s most wanted list of terrorists to ensure they are not arrested. The temporarily pardoned terrorists were all members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah organization. The amnesty was granted as a stated Israeli gesture to help bolster Abbas against rival Hamas. Despite Israeli media reports that many of the 178 pardoned terrorists refused to disarm and continued carrying out attacks, Olmert last October pardoned 48 more Al Aksa Brigades members and earlier this year pardoned at least 80 more – again on condition they disarm, refrain from attacks, spend three months in PA detention facilities and another three months confined to whichever northern West Bank city they reside in. About 45 percent of the temporarily pardoned
Last week, a handful of senior terrorists received permanent amnesty for purportedly abiding by the conditions for a pardon.
This reporter obtained the list of pardoned terrorists, which Olmert’s office is keeping confidential. Among the now officially pardoned terrorists is Nasser Abu Aziz, who was the second-in-command of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank city of Nablus – the Brigades’ main stronghold. Aziz was also considered the No. 2 leader in the Brigade’s West Bank terrorist infrastructure.
According to Israeli security officials and Aziz’s own admission during in-person interviews with this reporter, among the major attacks directly orchestrated by his cell was an April 17, 2006, suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv bus station eatery in which nine Israelis were murdered and over 60 people were injured. A tenth Israeli died of his wounds several days after the bombing.
Florida teenager Daniel Wultz, who was visiting Israel with his family on Passover vacation, was critically wounded in the bombing, reportedly losing his spleen, a kidney and a leg. His father was moderately wounded. Daniel Wultz died of his wounds about a month after the attack.
The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for the suicide bombing along with the Islamic Jihad terror group. Palestinian security sources said the Brigades planned the attack and that Islamic Jihad provided the suicide belt as a symbolic gesture to take part in the bombing.
In an exclusive interview, Aziz, now considered an ordinary Palestinian citizen, called Wultz’s death a “gift from Allah” and revenge against American Jewish support for Israel.
Also pardoned is Ahmed Abu Salta, who served under Aziz and was considered the No. 3 leader of the Brigades in Nablus. According to Israeli security officials, Salta was part of the same cell that planned the suicide bombing in which Wultz was killed.
Rabia Hamed, the second-in-command of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Ramallah, received his permanent amnesty last week. According to Israeli security officials, Hamed took part in scores of shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in the West Bank. He was part of a cell that murdered Israeli nationalist leader Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane in a December 2000 shooting.
Zacharia Zbedei, the infamous leader of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank city of Jenin, is also now officially pardoned.
Israel granted the terrorists full amnesty last week despite reliable information that dozens of terrorists recently granted full amnesty have since been involved in attacks. Just last weekend, Israeli forces arrested Maamun Hamdan, an Al Aksa member who had been given a complete pardon, on information he was planning an imminent attack meant for central Israel. Last week, Israel also arrested Muhammad Qutawi, another Brigades leader given a full pardon. Qutawi is also accused of planning an attack meant for central Israel.