Eight of the Palestinians re-arrested were from the first batch of prisoners released in exchange for Gilad Schalit.
By YAAKOV KATZSchalit deal prisoners 370(photo credit: REUTERS)
The IDF has rearrested 15 Palestinians who were released from Israeli prisons under the Gilad Schalit prisoner swap conducted last year.Eight of the Palestinians were from the first batch of prisoners released, many of whom were serving life sentences for a variety of deadly terrorist attacks.The remaining seven were from the second batch of prisoners who were serving lighter sentences. Three of the prisoners have been released since they were rearrested.The first stage of the exchange took place in October, when 477 Palestinians were freed, and the second stage in December, when 550 were released.A senior IDF officer from the Central Command said on Wednesday that it was still too early to measure the impact the released prisoners were having on the West Bank.“People need to acclimate back to their homes and work to retrieve their former status in their respective organizations from the younger generation that took over while they were away,” the officer said.One of those rearrested was Ayman Salama, 36, who had been serving a 38-year sentence for his involvement in a 2002 bomb attack in Beersheba that wounded 18 people, as well as for a series of shooting attacks during the second intifada. He was supposed to be released in 2040.Another prisoner rearrested was Khalid Makhamira, who had been serving a life sentence since 2006 for his involvement in a series of shooting attacks in the West Bank during the second intifada. He was a Fatah member when he went into jail, and switched allegiance to Hamas during his five years in prison.
