Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Agreement: Which Palestinian Prisoners Could Be Freed? | Prison news
More than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been held without charge in the Israeli prison system for years, are preparing to taste freedom for the first time.
The exact number of prisoners released in exchange for Israeli prisoners in Gaza is unclear. The text of the cease-fire agreement has not yet been released, and media-reported details describe different ratios for prisoner-for-prisoner exchanges, depending on whether the Palestinian prisoners are serving life sentences or not.
There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli jails, not including those imprisoned from Gaza during the last 15 months of the conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners and Former Prisoners and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
Israel’s Justice Ministry released a list of 95 Palestinian women and children who will be released on Sunday if the cease-fire agreement begins to be implemented, but the names of the prisoners who will be released have not been released.
According to the draft contract, their issuance will not take place before Sunday at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT).
A list of names released by Israel shows that the vast majority were arrested after a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, according to media reports. Fewer than 10 were arrested before the attack.
The first phase
During the first phase of the three-phase agreement between Hamas and Israel, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be exchanged for the 33 remaining Israeli prisoners, estimated at around 100 in total.
Under the terms of the agreement, Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for Israeli prisoners according to ratios agreed between the two sides and international mediators in Doha.
According to reports, 110 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life in Israeli courts will be exchanged for nine sick and wounded Israeli prisoners. In addition, Israeli men over the age of 50 will be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a ratio of 1:3 for those sentenced to life sentences, or 1:27 for those serving other sentences.
Previous prisoner exchanges
Prisoners have long been used as currency in Israel’s relations with Palestinian groups.
During stopped peace talks in 2013Israel agreed to the gradual release of more than 100 Palestinians in a move intended to strengthen negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.
However, closer parallels to the current exchange can be found in the prisoner exchanges of 1983, when more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners were freed in exchange for six Israeli soldiers. Similarly, in 1985, about 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.
Gilad Shalit exchange
1,027 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged in 2011 for Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in a cross-border operation in 2006 and held for five years while negotiations for his release failed.
In 2014, the Israeli government admitted to rearresting 51 of those prisoners after the kidnapping and eventual murder of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank. Explaining the arrests later, Netanyahu did not attempt to link those arrested to the missing teenagers, saying only that their abduction sent an “important message” to Hamas.
High profile prisoners
Israel’s military radio reported that Khalida Jarrar, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the occupied West Bank, is among the Palestinian prisoners to be freed on Sunday.
The Palestinians are also calling for the release of several other high-ranking prisoners, including some serving life sentences.
Among them is one of the leading figures of the Palestinian group Fatah, Marwan Barghouti, whose long-awaited release was repeatedly blocked by the Israeli authorities. The release of Barghouti, who helped write the 2006 Palestinian Prisoners Document, bringing together many disparate Palestinian factions, could have important ramifications for Palestinian politics, as he is a unifying figure repeatedly come out on top when Palestinians are asked who they would vote for in future presidential elections.
Contacted by Al Jazeera on Friday, representatives of Barghouti, 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, head of the PFLP, who Israel accused of ordering the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, although the Justice Department initially ruled that there there is not enough evidence to accuse him of murder.
What did the prisoners survive?
Although the unknown locations where many of the prisoners are being held are slated for release, human rights groups have long expressed concern about conditions within Israel’s prison system.
In August, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published an extensive report detailing a network of Israeli detention facilities that it described as “torture camps.” Global NGO Human Rights Watch as well published reports on the Israeli prison system in July and August, detailing rape, the sharing of sexualized images of Palestinian prisoners, including children, and the systematic torture of prisoners.
In July 2024, the Israeli minister responsible for the prison system, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, he boasted that “everything reported about the abominable conditions” Palestinians were subjected to in Israeli prisons was true.
More than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners are also imprisoned administrative detentionmeaning they were held without trial or charge.
