Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas made a congratulatory phone call on Saturday to a terrorist murderer freed by Israel as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, local media reported.
According to Israel’s Kan News, which aired footage of the call, Abbas hailed Yasser Abu Bakr, who was sentenced to 115 years in 2004 over his role in terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of multiple Israeli civilians, including a 9-month-old baby, and left many others wounded.
In the recording, the P.A. chief can be heard congratulating Abu Bakr on his release from prison, telling him his incarceration was “for the sake of the Palestinian nation” and suggesting that he received an excessive sentence, according to a translation by Israel’s Walla outlet.
אבו מאזן התקשר לאחד מהמחבלים ששוחררו, יאסר אבו בכר, ובירך אותו על השחרור. אבו בכר היה בגדודי חללי אל-אקצא ושהה במאסר 23 שנה, לאחר שנידון ל-115 שנות מאסר בעקבות תכנון כמה פיגועים ב-2002 – בין השאר פיגוע בנתניה במרץ 2002, בו נרצחה תינוקת בת תשעה חודשים וישראלי נוסף | תיעוד… pic.twitter.com/3vCqnoqIgB
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 25, 2025
Abbas’s statements prompted condemnations from Israeli lawmakers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“His phone call tonight to a murderer of Jews is a wake-up call to those who still delude themselves about the P.A. being an alternative to Hamas in Gaza after the war. It won’t happen. Not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria,” said 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.’”
The Palestinian Authority pays jailed terrorists a monthly salary based on the quality of their terror attack and the number of Jews they killed, in its “Pay for Slay” program.
Jerusalem freed some 200 terrorists on Saturday as part of the second wave of releases in the first phase of the ceasefire, in exchange for four female Israel Defense Forces taken captive during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre in southern Israel.
Many of the terrorists freed on Saturday were serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.
A hundred and nine Arab terrorists were released back into Judea and Samaria, 21 to the Gaza Strip, and the rest, about 70, were expelled to Egypt and are expected to leave for other countries in accordance with the terms of the agreement, which went into effect on Jan. 19.
In Cairo, the released terrorists were welcomed by representatives of Hamas and Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad. At least some of the terrorists traveled on to Qatar, according to reports on Sunday.
