But Sawafta
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli prison, revered by militants as the “chief” of their inmates, is among more than 200 Palestinians to be deported under a Gaza ceasefire and hostage swap.
Nael Barghouti, 67, spent 44 years in prison in Israel, more than any other Palestinian. Imprisoned in 1978 for the murder of an Israeli bus driver, he was released in 2011 in a previous exchange, but was re-arrested three years later and has been in custody ever since.
Israel has said that Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis must be permanently deported if they are freed under a Gaza ceasefire deal, and that they will not be allowed to return to their homes in the occupied West Bank.
Barghouti is one of 217 prisoners on the Israeli Justice Ministry’s list of those to be sent abroad, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Association.
His wife Eman Nafe, herself a former prisoner who spent 10 years in an Israeli prison accused of plotting a suicide attack, said she thought he might refuse release if it meant being sent abroad: “I’m sure he would refuse this.” , she told Reuters.
There are 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli jails, not including those arrested in Gaza during the last 15 months of the war, according to the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, including women, children, men over 50 and sick and wounded prisoners.
In return, Israel will release 1,167 people detained in Gaza during the war and 737 other prisoners from the West Bank, Jerusalem or Gaza.
The first three Israeli hostages were released on Sunday in exchange for 90 Palestinian detainees, although none of the most vulnerable Palestinian prisoners were in that initial group.
Barghouti, who shares a common Palestinian surname with jailed political leader Marwan Barghouti, a distant cousin, will learn that much has changed during his years in prison, his wife said.
They will find “that his only brother also died, that his brother’s son was killed, many houses were destroyed, and many family members were detained,” she said.
