Hamas: Israel to hand over the remains of suicide bombers

Hamas media reports Israel prepared to transfer bodies of terrorists including perpetrator of Jerusalem Sbarro attack in 2001; families prepare to honor return of "martyrs."

Sbarro Terror Attack 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Sbarro Terror Attack 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Hamas media sources were cited by Israel Radio on Tuesday as reporting that Israel plans to transfer the remains of Izz al-Din al-Masri, the suicide bomber who detonated himself in a Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant in 2001, to the Palestinian Authority. The attack resulted in the death of 19 people
According to the report, the funeral is to be held in al-Masri's home village in the West Bank.
Israel is also reportedly in the process of handing over the bodies of brothers Abdel and Imad Audallah. The brothers were leaders in Hamas's military wing and were killed by Israeli security forces outside of Hebron in 2008.
A large funeral procession has been planned by the family honoring the Audallah brothers as martyrs' near Ramallah.
Israel began to exhume the remains of a number of Palestinian terrorists to return them to their families for burial early in January, 2014.

Israel has over many years interred the bodies of terrorists killed in attacks on Israelis at special cemeteries. It has returned them sporadically, usually as part of amnesties or prisoner exchanges.