As part of the hostages-for-terrorists exchange, Israel is set to release around 2000 Palestinian terrorists. One of them is reportedly Jihad A-Karim Azziz Rom, the perpetrator of the horrific 2000 Ramallah lynching. He is also involved in the 2001 kidnapping, torture, and murder of an 18-year-old Israeli boy.
The Ramallah Lynching took place on October 12, 2000, when two Israeli reservists took a wrong turn on the way to their army base and drove into a Palestinian-controlled area. First Corporal Yosef Avrahami and First Sargent Vadim Norzhich, both aged 33, mistakenly entered the Palestinian city of Ramallah and were immediately arrested by the local policemen. The two men were dragged to the Ramallah police headquarters, where they were brutally beaten and killed by a frenzied mob amid the chants of “Allahu Akbar.”
Eight months later, Jihad Rom and his fellow terrorists struck again, kidnapping and murdering Israeli teenager, Yuri Gushchin. The boy’s “Palestinian acquaintances in downtown Jerusalem” had “convinced him to accompany them to Ramallah on the pretext of hiring him to renovate an apartment there,” an official Israeli report said. Yuri’s “body with multiple stab and gunshot wounds near the slaughterhouse,” outside Ramallah, the report added.
The Jerusalem Post reported the possible release of the convicted terrorist:
Jihad A-Karim Azziz Rom, a terrorist who participated in the lynching of IDF reservists Vadim Norzitch and Yosef Avrahami in 2000 and the abduction and murder of Yuri Gushchin in 2001, is set to be released as part of the Gaza peace deal, Maariv reported early on Friday morning after the Israeli government approved the deal.Rom, who was 26 at the time of the lynching, was sentenced to life for Guschin’s murder plus an additional 20 years for his role in the killing of the two reservists.The Ramallah lynching became a key moment in Palestinian terrorism, after Italian film crews recorded Arab terrorists lifting their blood-soaked hands in celebration of the attack at Ramallah police station. The two reservists had mistakenly driven into Ramallah, where they were detained by Palestinian Authority police officers, and taken to the local police station in Ramallah’s twin city, el-Bireh, where a thousand Palestinians rallied for their deaths. The crowd eventually overwhelmed the officers, took over the station, and beat and stabbed Norzitch and Avrahami to death.
Aziz Salha, the Palestinian terrorist who rose to infamy for waving his blood-stained hands after the Ramallah lynching, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in October 2024. Salha, also serving a life sentence for his murderous crime, was freed in exchange for the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Despite his release, Salha “remained involved in Hamas terrorist activities,” the Israeli military disclosed in a statement at that time.
Israel on Friday announced a ceasefire in Gaza at noon local time (5 a.m. Eastern time), paving the way for the release of the hostage within the 72-hour deadline set by the peace plan brokered by President Donald Trump.
“With the agreement to return the hostages and end the war in Gaza approved, IDF forces Friday have withdrawn to the agreed lines, it announced at noon,” Israel’s Ynetnews reported. “The IDF completed the dismantling of outposts and static defensive positions in the Gaza Strip and completed the withdrawal at noon — in order to start counting, from midnight, the 72 hours Hamas has under the agreement to return the hostages, Monday at noon.”
The Israeli military announced the ceasefire in a press release, saying: “Since 12:00, IDF troops began positioning themselves along the updated deployment lines in preparation for the ceasefire agreement and the return of hostages.” The IDF warned Hamas that “troops in the Southern Command are deployed in the area and will continue to remove any immediate threat.”
The military completed the withdrawal to the agreed-upon lines. “Overnight, the Technology and Logistics Directorate personnel of the Southern Command conducted a large-scale logistics operation in which troops were moved to predesignated lines and positions,” the military disclosed in a separate statement. “Technology and maintenance personnel are restoring the readiness of vehicles and technological systems and are establishing the necessary infrastructure to reinforce and maintain the defense line.”
With today’s withdrawal, the IDF will remain in control of over half of the Gaza territory, The Times of Israel reported:
Following the withdrawal, the IDF remains in control of just over half of the Strip’s territory, or 53 percent — most of which is outside of urban areas.This includes a buffer zone along the entire Gaza border, including the Philadelphi Corridor — the Egypt-Gaza border area — along with Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the Strip’s far north, a ridge on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City, and large portions of Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Ahead of the ceasefire, the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, conducted a field tour of the Gaza frontline. Addressing the troops, he observed the central role they played in forcing Hamas to agree to the hostage release.
“Thanks to significant military pressure and a powerful and high-quality ground operation, you, the troops, created the conditions for the return of the hostages home – our military activity produced a political achievement; that achievement is first and foremost yours,” the IDF Chief of the General Staff said on Thursday. “Today I remember and see before me our fallen, the bereaved families, and the individuals harmed physically or emotionally – this would not have happened without them.”
Given the deceitful nature of Hamas, the military remains on a ‘high level of readiness’ despite the agreement. “Our work is not yet finished; we will not rest until we see our last hostage returned, the fallen given burial, and we ensure the security of the State of Israel,” Lt. Gen. Zamir added.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY