JERUSALEM (news agencies) — Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday in the latest exchange for Israeli hostages captured by Hamas, as a fragile ceasefire held.
Israel views the prisoners as terrorists. Palestinians often see them as freedom fighters resisting a decades-long Israeli military occupation.
Nearly every Palestinian has a friend or family member who has been jailed by Israel for militant attacks or lesser offenses such as rock-throwing. Some are incarcerated for months or years without trial in what is known as administrative detention, which Israel says is needed to prevent attacks and avoid sharing sensitive intelligence.
Among those newly released, 36 had been sentenced to life for involvement in deadly attacks against Israelis. Twelve of those were allowed to return to homes in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Palestinian medics said that four were hospitalized for urgent care. The 24 others with life sentences were being sent into exile.
The rest of the 333 Palestinians released had been detained in Gaza after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war. Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of people in Gaza and held them without trial. As part of the ceasefire, Israel committed to releasing more than 1,000 of them on the condition that they hadn’t participated in the Oct. 7 attack.
A look at some prominent prisoners released since the truce took effect on Jan. 19:
Among the most prominent prisoners released is a close aide of militant leader and political figure Marwan Barghouti, who is still imprisoned. The two aren’t closely related.
Ahmed Barghouti was given a life sentence for dispatching assailants to carry out attacks that killed Israeli civilians during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s. As a commander in Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah Party, he was also convicted of possession of firearms and attempted murder.
He was sent to Egypt.
Three brothers from east Jerusalem were released after more than 22 years in prison for their involvement in suicide bombings that killed Israelis during the second intifada. Israeli authorities brought Ibrahim, 55, and Musa, 63, to their homes in the West Bank.
The third brother, Khalil, 45, who was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in 2002, was sent to Egypt.
Ibrahim Sarahneh’s Ukrainian wife, Irena, had been sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for organizing with her husband a suicide bombing that killed two people in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion. She was released in 2011 as part of a swap for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas.
“The conditions of detention are more difficult than you could imagine,” Ibrahim Sarahneh told media as he stepped off a bus in the West Bank village of Beitunia. “There is beating, insults, cursing.”
The Israeli Prison Service says it ensures “all basic rights” of prisoners and detains them according to the law.
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