Gantz: Israel to Hold Body of Dead Terrorist Leader

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Wednesday that the remains of a Palestinian terror prisoner who died a day earlier from lung cancer would not be released for burial.

Gantz’s office said the body of Nasser Abu Hamid, one of the founders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, would be held as a bargaining chip for the return of captive Israelis and the remains of soldiers held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Hamid, 50, was a former leader of the armed wing of Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party. He had been serving multiple life sentences since 2002 after being convicted in the deaths of seven Israelis during the second Palestinian intifada in the early 2000s.

Palestinians marched and shuttered shops in Yehudah and Shomron on Tuesday to protest his death.

Hamas has been holding two Israeli captives and the remains of two IDF soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war.

The families of those four Israelis met with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Wednesday, and the pope “expressed deep solidarity with them, especially with the suffering of the mothers,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

Palestinian officials had called for Abu Hamid’s release as his health deteriorated in recent months, and on Tuesday blamed Israel for his death.

Gantz denied the allegations that Israel had any involvement in Abu Hamid’s death.

Later in the day, former IDF chief of staff and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, took issue with Gantz’s decision.

“Trafficking in bodies is unnecessary — there are other methods to apply pressure,” Ya’alon told Army Radio. “If there are fears that the funeral will provoke incitement, then order them to bury him at night with only family in attendance.”