Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), welcomed terrorists who were freed from Israeli jails in a reception in Ramallah Tuesday.
Abbas made a speech in which he expressed hope that the rest of the PA Arabs in Israeli jails will be released – and claimed that Israel had
promised him additional prisoner releases were on the way.
He said that he had reached an agreement with the Israeli government regarding the release of an additional group of prisoners, of a similar size to the present one, and that he now is demanding that Israel carry out its commitment.
He praised Egypt for its role in sealing the Shalit deal, and lauded jailed terrorists for reaching an agreement between them that made Fatah-Hamas reconciliation possible.
He called the terrorist prisoners "Jihad warriors in the path of Allah and homeland" and expressed hope that Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Saadat, Ibrahim Hamad, Abbas a-Sayad and other senior terrorists would be free soon.
Abbas previously criticized Hamas for the deal, which he said was done to the exclusion of terrorists from his own movement.