A group of US lawmakers asked FBI Director Robert Mueller and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to put Palestinians released from prison in a swap for an Israeli soldier on the terrorist watch list.

A group of US lawmakers asked FBI Director Robert Mueller and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to put Palestinians released from prison in a swap for an Israeli soldier on the terrorist watch list.

In a letter this week to Mueller and Clinton, the lawmakers said the Palestinians who were convicted on various terrorism charges should not be allowed to enter the United States.

447 Palestinian detainees were released earlier this month, in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas. That was the first stage of the deal. In the second, which Hamas said would be clinched by Egyptian efforts, another 550 Palestinian detainees would see freedom.

The deal was criticized by Israeli figures since it involved the release of multiple detainees serving life sentences.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, of Kadima party, stated that the deal “legitimizes and strengthens” Hamas, adding that Israel “Israel is losing its military deterrence,” and that the next phase of the swap deal “must be coordinated with Abbas, rather than with Hamas.”