Palestinian, Who Hacked U.S. Christian Missionary to Death, Released in Hostages-For-Terrorists Swap
Luken’s companion, Tal Hartuv, was stabbed several times but miraculously survived.
While many rightly take a sigh of relief at the return of all living Israeli hostages, their freedom has been secured at a bitter and heavy price. Israel had to release nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners, among them convicted terrorists, rapists, and murderous psychopaths.
A partial list of convicts released in exchange for the hostages tells you everything you need to know about Hamas. The list ranges from Islamic terrorists who carried out several deadly attacks to a murderous child rapist.
One such monster to walk free is Iyad Hassan Hussein Fatafta. He had been convicted of murdering Kristine Luken, a Christian missionary working in Israel. On December 18, 2010, Fatafta and two other Palestinian men hacked the 44-year-old Christian woman to death with a machete in a forest outside of Jerusalem. Luken’s Jewish companion, Tal Hartuv, was stabbed several times but miraculously survived the attack by pretending to be dead.
Remembering Kristine Luken, a USA Christian, hacked to death in front of my eyes in 2010, because Palestinian terrorists assumed that she too, was Jewish. #YomHaZikaron #RemembranceDay RIP sweet lady. May G-d avenge your blood. 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/z4zbm6aaUa
— Tal Hartuv (@TalHartuv) May 13, 2024
Hartuv, formerly known as Kay Wilson, still struggles with serious injuries and severe trauma she sustained from the horrific attack. In October 2023, the British radio station LBC talked to Hartuv about her ordeal:
[Hartuv] was brutally attacked by two men disguised as Israeli police in 2010 while on a hike in the hills of Jerusalem with her Christian-American friend, Kristine Luken.
Ms Hartuv, who was a tour guide at the time, was sitting with Kristine on a nature trail when she saw two men ‘move in the bushes’.
One of the men asked Ms Hartuv if she ‘had any water’ in Hebrew, which she believes was the confirmation the men needed to confirm she was Jewish, and therefore “justifying the attack”.
Ms Hartuv and her friend were then attacked by the two men with machetes. Ms Luken let out a “blood-curdling scream” as she was butchered to death, with Ms Hartuv forced to watch.
Miraculously, Ms Hartuv managed to survive. She was left with over 30 broken bones, 13 machete wounds and a near-fatal stab wound in her chest. Moments from death, she managed to escape the forest and was rescued by police.
She was stabbed 18 times and had 30 bones broken…
The terrorist who did it – just got released.
This is the other side of the story – the dark side to the immense light of the hostages coming home ❤️💔
The latest episode of The Erin Molan Show has just dropped 🙏 Linked 👇 pic.twitter.com/SBfgRNMYxL
— Erin Molan (@Erin_Molan) October 15, 2025
Hartuv, whom I know through close friends, turned her life around and has become a source of strength and courage for others around her. During the Gaza war of 2014, she opened her home to a 17-year-old Arab boy, whose life had been threatened by Palestinians for publicly supporting Israel. She is currently helping the survivors of the October 7 massacre to cope with their pain and trauma.
Terrorist MACHETE attack left me for dead: @TalHartuv shares her horrific story
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Going live tonight at 6pm, on Youtube & Spotify 🎥🎧 pic.twitter.com/jSKM48KkSW— Liam Tuffs (@liamtuffs1) March 16, 2025
On Monday, The Times of Israel reported the impending release of the murderer:
On Tal Hartuv’s chest is a jagged scar, one of 18 stab wounds on her body from a brutal attack outside Jerusalem in 2010 that killed her friend. Next to the seven-centimeter (3-inch) mark rests a dog tag inscribed with the words “Our heart is captive in Gaza,” a popular symbol of support for a ceasefire deal exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
On Friday, as many were celebrating a deal between Israel and Hamas after two years of war, Hartuv read through the list of Palestinian prisoners set to be released and saw the name Iyad Hassan Hussein Fatafta. He was one of three men who tried to kill her and who were convicted of killing her friend Kristine Luken, an American who was visiting Israel as a tourist.
Survivors like Hartuv and families of those killed in attacks have faced a wrenching dilemma throughout the war: Should the killers of their loved ones go free, risking future attacks, or should hostages held in the Gaza Strip be left to their fate?
“I can feel thrilled and hopeful and joyful that our hostages are coming home,” said Hartuv, who changed her name as part of her rehabilitation. “But I can still feel angry, I can feel betrayed, I can feel hollow. They’re not mutually exclusive,” she said.
Since last week, we have been highlighting some of the dangerous terrorists and criminals being swapped for innocent Israelis, dead and alive. One such killer to walk free is a Palestinian psychopath who raped and murdered a 13-year-old Israeli boy. “The prisoner, a Gaza resident, was serving a life sentence and was scheduled for release in 2036,” the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, without naming the convicted murderer.
Israel: Body handed over by Hamas is not a hostage
With Israel freeing terrorists and murderers in accordance with President Donald Trump’s peace plan, Hamas is back to its old tricks, once again trying to pass off the body of an anonymous Gazan as that of an Israeli hostage it murdered.
After examining the first four bodies handed over by Hamas, the Israeli forensic experts determined that one of them did not belong to any of the hostages and was likely that of a Gaza resident.
“Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Wednesday.
To keep the deal in place, “Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages,” the IDF warned.
🟡Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.
Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 15, 2025
The Associated Press reports:
The Israeli military said Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza, adding to tensions over the fragile truce in the two-year war. (…)
Four bodies of hostages had been handed over by Hamas on Tuesday, following four on Monday — hours after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza. In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.
Israel’s military said that after the “examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages.” There was no immediate word on whose body it was.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal — introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump — about the return of the hostages’ bodies.
“We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we return the last deceased hostage, until the last one,” Netanyahu said.
The ceasefire plan had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired on Monday. But under the deal, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand over all as soon as possible.
This is not the first time Hamas has tried to pull off this crude trick. In February 2025, Hamas switched the boy of Shiri Bibas with that of a Gaza woman. Hamas was hoping to cover up the horrific circumstances Shiri — the mother of Ariel (4 years) and baby Kfir (9 months) — was murdered by the terrorist captors.
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Comments
They never should have released those monsters
Should have given them all pagers as a parting gift.
Israeli government is practicing suicide by releasing those terrorists with blood on their hands. This process has been repeated time and again only encouraging more terrorists attacks and more kidnappings. Israel keeps returning killers to the ranks of the terrorists only they are far more educated than when they were arrested. It aids recruiting of terrorists. They know Israel will not execute the captured terrorists and they know they will be released in exchange for dead Israelis. Who in israel is responsible for this insanity? Is the UN or western nations forcing this irrational exchange? Or is the Israeli government as screwed up as these Jews for Palestine in the US?
There are no Palestinians! What they are dealing with are Arabs and their offspring who were displaced when the Arab Muslim nations invaded Israel in 1948. Their homelands refused to take them back and the UN then housed, fed and supported these displaced Arab nationals in miserable camps. Their home countries to this day refuse to repatriate their own people. The UN built and funded schools where these Arabs were taught to hate and kill Jews and Israelis. There should be no “Palestinian state, especially one funded by Western nations that would be acting as suicidal as Israel releasing all those terrorists to kill again. The 10 Commandments do not prohibit killing, it prohibits murder, An illegal act. Executing terrorists with blood on their hands is no different than soldiers killing terrorists on the battlefield. How many more Israelis and Jews around the world will be murdered because of this stupid exchange program.
It’s OK…. the murderer was just practicing for “The Sunday People”.
Far too many practitioners of Islam lie, not matter what the circumstances. their excuse for murder and assignation is that it is Allah’s will. Depraved and disgusting.
As required by Allah. As instructed by his prophet (PBUH or else).
Islam is evil.
Israel released 2000 enemy soldier that by now have all probably taken arms again and are planning their next attack.
Put a big tally mark in the column of arguments FOR the death penalty.
My thoughts exactly. Not sure which is worse. Those committing death penalty crimes or those who refuse to impose or carry out the death penalty.
Paging the Mossad…please pick up the red phone.
Maybe they can send these animals a free pager?
And that’s precisely why Germany’s publicly funded television — financed by broadcasting fees — refers to it as a “hostage exchange.”… 😮🤨
In the spirit of letting bygones be bygones, each Hamas Gazan prisoner Israel releases as part of the ceasfire deal should be presented with a free Israeli pager.