Four decades after one of Paris’s most infamous anti-Semitic terror attacks, a long-sought key suspect has been extradited to France to face justice, marking a major milestone in a cold case that has haunted the country for generations. On Thursday, the Palestinian National Authority handed over 72-year-old Hicham Harb — also known by his legal name Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra — to French authorities, fulfilling an extradition request issued last September by France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT).
Upon Harb’s arrival at Paris’s Villacoublay air force base, investigating officials immediately took him into custody. He stands accused of both organizing the 1982 assault on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Rue des Rosiers, a historic Jewish neighborhood in Paris’s Marais district, and serving as one of the attack’s active gunmen.
The details of the 1982 attack remain chilling: attackers first launched a grenade into the crowded dining space before at least three armed men stormed in, opening fire with automatic machine guns on diners as they scrambled to escape. The violence left six people dead and more than 20 others injured, and until now, no defendant has ever been convicted for the killings.
The Rue des Rosiers attack was widely attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization, a violent Palestinian splinter faction that split from the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970s. Led by notorious militant Abu Nidal — who was killed in Iraq in 2002 — the group carried out a wave of deadly attacks across the globe through the 1980s, killing roughly 900 people in total, including plane hijackings, airport shootings, assassinations, and a deadly attack on a Greek cruise ship.
Judicial movement in the case gained momentum last year, when France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ordered a trial for six total suspects connected to the attack. Three of those suspects are being tried in absentia, currently residing in the West Bank, Jordan, and Kuwait. Two other suspects are already in French custody: Norwegian citizen Abou Zayed, who is also accused of being one of the attack’s gunmen, and Hazza Taha, who faces charges of hiding the weapons used in the assault. Zayed’s legal team has repeatedly denied any involvement in the 1982 attack on his client’s behalf.
Following Harb’s extradition, his son Bilal al-Adra has publicly denounced the transfer as illegal, claiming the suspect has no guarantee of receiving a fair trial in the French judicial system. Despite these claims, Paris courts have already rejected an appeal to move the case from a special judicial panel to a jury trial.
French President Emmanuel Macron has publicly praised the Palestinian Authority for its cooperation in the extradition, framing the handover as tangible proof of the productive judicial cooperation that has emerged since France officially recognized a Palestinian state in September 2025. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who met with victims’ families last year, reiterated the government’s commitment to securing accountability. Forty-four years after the attack, Barrot noted that justice is finally within reach, saying, “Faced with anti-Semitism and terrorism, France never forgets and never gives up.”