More than 600 Palestinian prisoners are set to be exchanged simultaneously for the bodies of the last four Israeli hostages to be returned by Hamas under the terms of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire.
Last Saturday Israel refused to free the Palestinian prisoners after Hamas handed over six alive Israeli captives. Prisoners waiting in buses for release were returned to jail.
Mustafa Barghouti, a doctor and head of the Palestinian National Initiative political movement, told The Irish Times by phone from Ramallah: “This was a very grave violation of an agreement the Israelis signed and shows that they cannot be trusted on any matter.”
The Israeli action at the weekend appears to be why Hamas has demanded a simultaneous swap in the latest exchange.
Britain to increase military spending as Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer compete to look toughest
‘I saw the Russian world from inside’: A Ukrainian human rights defender’s journey through war and captivity
Response to Elon Musk’s email shows possible limits to how far he can push US bureaucracy
The Russian over-50s fighting and dying in Ukraine
While Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu had brought exchanges to a halt due to Hamas’s humiliating ceremonies during hostage releases, this practice has not been confined to the Palestinian militant group. The Israeli prison service has forced Palestinian prisoners to wear T-shirts bearing the Star of David, symbolising Israel, and the intimidating slogan, “we will not forgive or forget”, written in Arabic. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is facilitating hostage-prisoner exchanges, has told both sides to behave in “dignified and private manner”.
Of the more than 250 abducted by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, 147 have been released alive and the bodies of 44 repatriated. Of the 62 still captivity, 27 are believed to be alive and 35 dead.
The 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees Israel is set to free includes 445 who were captured in Gaza after the outbreak of war and are to be released there. Of the remaining 157, 11 detained before the war are to go to Gaza, 45 to the occupied West Bank, and 101 are to be exiled abroad − which appears to be in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Also set to be released are 23 minors and a woman detained in Gaza in exchange for the bodies of Israeli captives Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, which were returned last week.
Al-Jazeera has reported that of the prisoners to be freed, 95 were affiliated with Hamas, 40 with the political party Fatah, 16 with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and four with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Among the prominent prisoners to be deported are men convicted of killing Israelis, including the longest serving prisoner, Nael Barghouti (67), who was jailed for the 1978 murder near Ramallah of 27-year-old Israeli bus driver Mordechai Yekuel in his vehicle. After 33 years in prison, Barghouti was freed in 2011 but was rearrested in 2014 and convicted of “terrorism”. He has spent a total of 44 years in jail.
According to the Palestinian Addameer prisoner support group, the total number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel is 10,000, of whom 7,768 are from the West Bank, 1,932 from Gaza and 300 from East Jerusalem. There are 3,369 administrative detainees, 375 minors, 15 women, 200 Palestinian-Israelis, four legislative council members, 398 serving life sentences and 1,802 unlawful detainees (non-combatants) from Gaza.
The number of arrests since October 7th is 14,500. The total number of prisoners has been 9,900-10,000 since 2023; during 2022-2021 the number ranged between 4,450-5,200, demonstrating that there has been a sharp spike in arrests since the Hamas attack on Israel. The national campaign to retrieve martyrs’ bodies said Israel holds the bodies of 641 Palestinians in cemeteries and morgues.
Conditions of detention have deteriorated dramatically. In August 2024, Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem issued a report entitled Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps.
B’Tselem’s ex-prisoner interviewees reported “severe arbitrary violence; sexual assault, humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment”.
B’Tselem reported half the prisoners were held “without trial, without being presented with the allegations against them, and without access to the right to defend themselves”. Some “were jailed for expressing sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians”. Others were held under suspicion or expressing political opinions. B’Tselem said the only thing they had in common was “being Palestinian”.
The World Health Organisation has said it is “deeply concerned about the wellbeing and safety of Palestinian health workers in Israeli detention”, due to reports of violence and mistreatment. In a report this week, the Guardian cited Palestinian medical organisation Healthcare Workers Watch, which said 339 healthcare staff had been detained. It confirmed that 162 remained in prison, including senior physicians, and 24 were missing after being arrested at hospitals during the Gaza conflict.
While prisoner-of-war exchanges began after the Arab-Israeli 1948 war, exchanges of individual or multiple prisoners between Israel and Palestinian groups began in the 1970s after Israel’s 1967 East Jerusalem-West Bank-Gaza occupation. The model for the current exchange was forged in 2011 with the swap of Israeli tank gunner Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006, for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The Israeli government press office did not respond to The Irish Times’s request for comment on allegations of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.
