Major prisoner-captive swap in potential Gaza ceasefire deal: Palestinian official

Ahram Online , Monday 13 Jan 2025

The head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority, Qadoura Fares as many as 3,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails could be released as part of the anticipated Gaza war ceasefire/captives-for-prisoners swap deal on the table now in Doha between Israel and Hamas.

Gilboa
File Photo: A general view of the Israeli prison Gilboa. AFP

 

In statements to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an, Fares explained that the first phase in the finalized three-phase proposed deal, delivered by Qatar to Israel and Hamas on Sunday, involves the swapping of 1,248 Palestinian prisoners with 25 Israeli captives held by Palestinian resistance groups since 7 October 2023.

The figures for Palestinian prisoners to be released in this phase include 48 Palestinians released in the 2011 swap deal for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and rearrested by Israel later; 1,000 prisoners, including all children, women, and sick detainees in Israeli prisons; and 200 prisoners serving life sentences, who would likely leave Israeli jails for exile in Qatar, Egypt, or Turkey.

Fares indicated that all released prisoners, except those destined for exile, would return to their homes in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Before the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, Israel jailed more than 4,000 Palestinians, many of them for decades.

Since then, Israel has arrested nearly 10,000 Palestinians, including more than 8,000 in the West Bank and hundreds more from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups captured more than 250 Israelis during its attack on the Israeli army’s Gaza Battalion on 7 October to force Tel Aviv to release thousands of Palestinians in its jails.

100 of these Israeli captives were swapped with 3,000 Palestinian prisoners in the one-week truce between Hamas and Israel in late November 2023.

Israeli carpet-bombing of the strip has killed at least 50 of the remaining Israeli captives.

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