Yamina Chairman and former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett excoriated the government Sunday over the decision to allow a senior terrorist leader to be buried in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Ramadan Shalah, the 62-year-old former leader of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine terrorist organization died in Damascus, Syria.
Shalah led Islamic Jihad from Damascus from 1995 until September 2018, when he suffered a debilitating stroke, leaving him comatose.
A day after Shalah’s death, Islamic Jihad confirmed that an arrangement had been made, using Egypt as an intermediary, under which Shalah’s remains will be transferred to the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s agreement.
Bennett blasted the decision, accusing his successor, Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of giving a “free gift” to terrorists.
In a tweet Sunday, Bennett compared Israel’s approval of the transfer of Shalah’s remains to Gaza to the refusal of the Hamas terrorist organization to return the remains of two slain IDF soldiers killed in 2014, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
“Why did you give permission for the body of a terrorist leader, Ramadan Shalah, to be buried in Gaza? Why didn’t you condition this on the release of the remains of the fallen IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul?”
“Why did you give our enemies a free gift?”