Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Agreement: Which Palestinian Prisoners Could Be Freed? | Prison news

More than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, many held without charge for years in the Israeli prison system, are preparing for their first taste of freedom.

The exact number of prisoners being released in exchange for Israeli prisoners held in Gaza is unclear. The text of the ceasefire agreement has not yet been published, and the details reported by the media describe different proportions for the prisoner-prisoner exchange, depending on whether the Palestinian prisoners are taking their lives or not.

There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, not including those detained from Gaza during the past 15 months of conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission for Detainee and Ex-Detainee Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.

The Israeli Ministry of Justice has published a list of 95 Palestinian women and children who will be released on Sunday if the implementation of the cease-fire agreement begins, but beyond that, it is not known the names of the prisoners to be released.

According to the scheme of the agreement, his release will not happen before Sunday at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT).

The list of names released by Israel shows that a vast majority were arrested after Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, according to media reports. Fewer than 10 were arrested before the attacks.

Phase one

During the first stage of the three-phase agreement between Hamas and Israel, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be exchanged for 33 of the remaining Israeli prisoners, who are estimated to be around 100 in total.

Under the terms of the agreement, Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for Israeli prisoners according to reports agreed by both sides and by international mediators in Doha.

According to reports, 110 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life by Israeli courts will be exchanged for nine sick and injured Israeli prisoners. Also, Israeli men over 50 will be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a ratio of 1:3 for those sentenced to life, and 1:27 for those serving other sentences.

Previous prisoner exchanges

Prisoners have long been used as currency in Israel’s dealings with Palestinian groups.

during broke off peace talks in 2013Israel agreed to the release of more than 100 Palestinians in a move aimed at strengthening negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.

However, parallels more closely to the current exchange can be found in the prisoner exchanges of 1983, when more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for six Israeli soldiers. Similarly, in 1985, approximately 1,150 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for three Israeli soldiers. The current exchange is also similar in scope to perhaps the most famous prisoner exchange, which involved the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.

Exchange of Gilad Shalit

1,027 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged in 2011 for Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in a 2006 cross-border raid and held for five years while negotiations for his release stalled.

In 2014, the Israeli government admitted it had rearrested 51 of those prisoners after the kidnapping and eventual killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank. Explaining those arrests later, Netanyahu made no attempt to link those arrested to the missing teenagers, saying only that their abduction sent “an important message” to Hamas.

High profile prisoners

Israeli Army Radio said Khalida Jarrar, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the occupied West Bank, is among the Palestinian prisoners to be released on Sunday.

The Palestinians are also demanding the release of several other high-profile prisoners, including some who are serving life sentences.

Among them is one of the main figures of the Palestinian group Fatah, Marwan Barghouti, whose expected release has been repeatedly blocked by Israeli authorities. The release of Barghouti, who in 2006 helped draft the Document on Palestinian Prisoners, bringing together many disparate Palestinian factions, could have significant repercussions for Palestinian politics, as the unifying figure repeatedly come out on top when Palestinians are asked who they will vote for in any future presidential election.

Contacted by Al Jazeera on Friday, Barghouti’s representatives, including family members, said that while they were hopeful, they had not received any information about his possible release.

Another high-profile Palestinian prisoner is Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the PFLP, who has been accused by Israel of ordering the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in ​​2001, although the Ministry of Justice initially decided that there was. not enough evidence to accuse him of murder.

What did the prisoners endure?

While the locations where many of the prisoners scheduled for release are being held are unknown, rights groups have long expressed concern about conditions in the Israeli prison system.

In August, Israeli rights group B’Tselem published an extensive report detailing a network of Israeli detention facilities it described as “torture camps.” The global NGO Human Rights Watch also published reports on the Israeli prison system in July and August, detailing rape, the sharing of sexual images of Palestinian prisoners, including children, and the systemic torture of detainees.

In July 2024, the Israeli minister responsible for the prison system, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, he boasted that “everything published about the abominable conditions” Palestinians were subjected to in Israeli prisons “was true.”

More than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners are also being held there administrative detentionthat is, they are held without trial or charge.