Israel eliminates 7 terrorists freed in 2011 Gilad Shalit hostage deal

The Israeli military and the intelligence agency Shin Bet jointly eliminated seven convicted terrorists in Gaza who had been released from Israeli prison in 2011 as part of the deal to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who spent five years in Hamas captivity.

Among them were Riad Asilah and Bassem Abu Sanineh, who had been exiled to Gaza after being convicted for coordinated terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria (internationally known as the West Bank) on behalf of Hamas in the 1990s. Both were responsible for fatal stabbings carried out nearly 30 years ago.

In 2011, the Israeli government reluctantly released over 1,000 convicted terrorists to secure Shalit’s freedom. Among them was Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, who was eventually eliminated by Israeli forces in a firefight in southern Gaza in October 2024.

While Gaza has been Hamas’ main power base, the terrorist group has tried with the assistance of the Iranian ayatollah regime to undermine the rule of its political rival, Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah in Samaria, north of the Israeli capital Jerusalem. 

In June 2023, just three months before the Hamas-led massacre, a Palestinian Authority (PA) official warned that “Iran is already here, in the West Bank.”

“The Iranians want their Palestinian agents to extend their control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank,” the PA official continued. 

Unlike the unpopular PA, Hamas continues to enjoy significant support among the Arabic-speaking population in Judea and Samaria.

A November 2023 poll revealed that 85% of the Arabic-speaking population in Gaza, Judea and Samaria expressed support for the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251 people from southern Israel. While support for Hamas has declined in Gaza due to widespread destruction, the terrorist group continues to enjoy strong backing in Judea and Samaria, where it is seen as a preferable alternative to the PA leadership under Mahmoud Abbas.

In March 2025, the Israeli military arrested 12 terrorist suspects and seized a large weapons cache in Judea and Samaria. 

The local Israel Police West Bank District commander, Moshe Pinchi, announced at the time that the "Binyamin station, acting on precise intelligence, located two apartments used as weapons depots. Our district works around the clock to prevent attacks in Judea and Samaria and inside Israel."

"Any weapon that isn't seized can easily end up in the hands of criminals and can all be used for terrorism. We work in full cooperation with the IDF and Shin Bet, which leads to these results," he added. 

Since launching its Operation Gideon’s Chariots against Hamas in Gaza in March, Israeli forces have eliminated some 1,300 terrorists, including 38 commanders. 

In May, Israel eliminated Hamas’ top leader Mohammed Sinwar in an aerial strike on a Hamas command bunker located beneath the European Hospital in southern Gaza. 

A senior Hamas official admitted last week that the terror group had lost 80% of its control in Gaza after being severely degraded after almost 22 months of war with Israel.