A Palestinian terrorist who infamously lynched two Israeli reservists who took a wrong turn in the West Bank more than 20 years ago has been killed in an airstrike in Gaza, Israel’s military said Thursday.
Abdel-Aziz Salha, 43, was taken out in a targeted strike in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip early Thursday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Salha, a West Bank Hamas militant, had been jailed for life for taking part in the lynching of the two Israeli reservists in Ramallah back in 2000 — but was later released to Gaza in a prisoner swap.
The soldiers, Sgt. First Class Yosef Avrahami and Cpl. Vadim Norzhic, had taken a wrong turn and ended up in the Palestinian-controlled city when they were seized and beaten to death by a mob.
A now-infamous image showed Salha proudly showing off his blood-soaked hands to a cheering crowd in the wake of the murders.
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Bloody handprints have since become a symbol of anti-Israel protesters — and have been left all over the homes of Jewish leaders and whom protesters of accuse of being complicit in the war in Gaza.
Salha was arrested in 2001 over the lynching and sentenced to life in prison.
He was freed a decade later alongside more than 1,000 other Palestinians in a prisoner exchange with Hamas for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
In recent years, the IDF said Salha had been involved in plotting terror attacks in the West Bank.
With Post wires
