‘That’s not how you defeat terrorism’: govt. returns bodies of Hadera terrorists
The Israeli government returned the bodies of the two Islamist terrorists who shot and killed two Israelis in the city of Hadera on March 27, provoking anger on the right.
Security forces and ambulances at the scene of a shooting attack in Hadera, where two Arab-Israeli terrorists, citizens of the city of Umm al-Fahm, murdered two Israeli Border Police officers and wounded three Israelis. The terrorists were shot dead by Israeli policemen. Hadera, Mar 27, 2022. Photo by Tsuriya Zeevi/TPS
Yezen Falah and Shirel Abukarat, both 19 and Border Police officers, were killed, and several others were injured by Ibrahim and Ayman Agbaria, Israeli citizens from the city of Umm al-Fahm, two terrorists who are believed to have been supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS).
The terrorists were buried overnight and with a funeral of fewer than 100 attendants. However, some of the participants reportedly chanted, “we will sacrifice our lives for the sake of the martyr” and “we will go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the millions.”
Terror victims and right-wing politicians responded to the development harshly.
Bereaved father Herzl Hajaj, whose daughter Shir was killed in an attack together with another three IDF soldiers in January 2017, wrote that “the Bennett-Abbas-Hamas government did not destroy the terrorists’ homes from Hadera and also returned the terrorists’ bodies to their families for burial. That’s not how you defeat terrorism – that’s how you encourage it.”
Member of Knesset Avi Maoz (Religious Zionism) was furious Monday morning when he stated that “the government of the extreme left, led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, continues to encourage Arab terrorism.”
“Instead of imposing sanctions on the families of the terrorists to create deterrence and fight terrorism, Bennett and Lapid are fighting for the integrity of the coalition so that the government does not fall. The people of Israel are disgusted with this leadership. The people of Israel want a Jewish-national government,” he declared.
MK Itamar Ben Gvir (Religious Zionism) said that “the bodies of terrorists should not be returned. To deter the next threat, terrorist bodies must not be returned, but must be hidden. Bennett is doing the opposite of what he previously claimed that terrorists’ bodies should not be returned because it harms state security.”
