PA daily celebrates release of Palestinian terrorists in “the largest prisoner exchange deal,” in which Israel released 4,700 Palestinian terrorists in exchange for 6 Israel soldiers
Headline: “38 years ago, when the occupier submitted to the largest prisoner exchange deal”
“This is the revolution… that the Fatah Movement launched in the largest prisoner exchange deal. In 1983 Israel submitted to its demands to release 4,700 Arab and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for six Israeli prisoners who were caught together with two others, in a heroic operation that was carried out by a group of fighters from the Al-Asifa forces, Fatah’s military wing (see note below -Ed.).
At the time the Fatah leadership was under siege in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon. Commander Khalil Al-Wazir ‘Abu Jihad’ (i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 125) issued a statement in which he announced that the leadership is in danger, and that it is not responsible for what is liable to happen to the six Zionist soldiers that it captured.
The following day, Abu Jihad’s statements appeared in the Israeli newspaper headlines. This caused Israeli popular pressure on the occupation government, which forced it to return to negotiations. Fatah exploited this to raise the bar of its demands. It asked to completely close Ansar Prison [in Lebanon], to destroy it, and to hand its keys over to the Palestinian leadership.”
The capture of 8 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon – Eight Israeli soldiers were captured by Fatah terrorists in Bhamadoun, Lebanon on Sept. 4, 1982. Two of them were handed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and 6 were held by Fatah. Fatah released the 6 soldiers on Nov. 23, 1983 as part of an exchange deal in which Israel released 4,700 terrorists that were held in Lebanon and 65 terrorists held in Israel. The two handed over to the PFLP were released on May 21, 1985, as part of an exchange deal in which Israel released 1,150 terrorist prisoners.
Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) - was a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960’s - 1980’s. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.