Fury of Hamas bomb victim’s brother as Israel set to release 2,000 Palestinians in new hostage deal – including 250 of the worst extremists serving life sentences

Distraught families who lost their relatives to terrorists and will now be released from Israeli prisons said, ‘No other country would pay such a price for peace.’

Relatives of those whose lives were so cruelly cut short spoke of their “anger” and “betrayal” at the terms of the peace agreement with Hamas.

In exchange for 48 hostages, Israel will release 250 of the worst extremists for life, along with 1,700 Palestinians captured since the October 7 attack.

This means that only 20 terrorists sentenced to life imprisonment will remain in the country.

“Of course I’m angry,” Oren Hubara, 42, told the Mail after learning the leader of the terror group who killed his sister Odelia, 26, and four others in a nightclub in 2005 would be released.

“This is a price that no country in the world is willing to pay for peace,” he said in a speech from his home in Jerusalem.

But in his anger, he acknowledged that there may be no alternative to ending the bloodshed.

He said: ‘As soon as I heard that people were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, I was ready to pay the price for their families.

‘If this is a gift to them from my sister and me, that would give me some comfort. I just wish their family would be quiet and I know if Odelia looked down it would make her happy.’

While Odelia was celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Stage Club in Tel Aviv, a suicide bomber, part of a terrorist organization led by Iyad Abul al-Rub, detonated his device.

He remained on life support for two days but could not be saved and died due to brain damage and a collapsed lung. Abu’r-Rub is among those to be released.

‘When I heard it, everything came back,’ says Oren, who is supported by the band One Family.

‘Sitting next to him was hell for two days. His wounds were all internal, with very few scratches; There was only a cut near his eyebrow.

‘He looked so quiet and beautiful we thought he would make it. Then the doctor said he wanted to talk to us and we all knew what he was going to say.

‘It was midnight. I was crushed, I couldn’t stop crying; At that moment my whole life changed. ‘I still miss him every day.’

Odelia was due to move to America with her boyfriend two days after the attack, and it was only after he died that they learned his boyfriend had bought her a ring to propose to her.

‘He was in our house, just crying and screaming. I felt sorry for him more than myself. He was so close to his new life and now he was gone.’

The father of three, whose 73-year-old parents Dalia and Shimon had to bury their daughter, said: ‘I don’t think there are words that can describe this pain. Yet my father can barely talk about it.

‘There are memories of him everywhere. Every time I look at my children I think about what life will be like; If they had children, what would it be like, how would our children play?’

A single terrorist linked to his sister’s death remained in prison after previous deals, and this terrorist’s mastermind was released in a swap made just months before the Stage Club bombing.

‘It feels like we’re in a never-ending, heartbreaking cycle,’ Oren said.

British-Israeli Tal Hartuv, 59, was ambushed and tied up by Iyad Fatafita while hiking in the Judean Hills with guide Kristine Luken in 2010.

Ms. Hartuv was stabbed 18 times while Kristine was killed.

Ms Hartuv, who learned Fatafita would be broadcast, told the Mail: ‘I felt betrayed when I saw my attacker’s name in the broadcast list.

Israel will release 250 of the worst extremists and 1,700 Palestinians captured since the October 7 attack for life in exchange for 48 Israeli hostages. Image: Israelis previously gathered in Tel Aviv in February to watch Hamas hand over hostages taken to Gaza

‘Can you imagine the British government agreeing to release those who killed Lee Rigby or the Manchester arena bombing? Absolutely incredible.

‘This is a disgrace, a miscarriage of justice hidden in the fine print of the hostage agreement.’

Ms. Hartuv had to play dead before walking barefoot covered in blood.

‘It took me years to heal; “Thirty broken bones, a collapsed lung, a crushed shoulder,” he said.

Alon Mizrachi, 22, was among seven people killed in a suicide bomb attack on Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem in 2003.

Baher Muhammed Mahmud Badr, who is in charge of the Hamas cell, will also be released.

Alon’s sister Sigi, 57, said: ‘I want to cry every time I think he’s going to be released.

‘I see all of Alon’s friends growing up and having families, and I think he should be there too.

‘But if this is the cost of bringing our soldiers and hostages home, that makes me happy.’

Other terrorists to be released include Raid Sheikh, who participated in the lynching of two Israeli reservists in the West Bank in 2000, Ibrahim Alkam, who killed a mother and her 12-year-old son, and Mohammed Daoud, who killed a pregnant mother and her five-year-old son with a Molotov cocktail.