According to Egypt, a key mediator in the deal alongside Qatar and the United States, Israel is set to release 1,890 Palestinian prisoners during the first phase of the three-phase agreement.

This release will represent one of the largest exchanges of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons - some for decades -  for captives held by Palestinian factions since 7 October 2023.

The plight of Palestinian prisoners is deeply ingrained in the history of their struggle. Since the Balfour Declaration and before, Palestinians have meticulously documented the names of their prisoners, many of whom were held in Zionist terrorist groups prisons, which have been transformed later into Israeli occupation prisons.

According to a report by the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoners and Freed Prisoners' Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club in January 2025, Israel currently holds over 10,400 Palestinians in its jails.

These figures do not account for prisoners from Gaza, whose details Israel has refused to release. On 31 December 2024, Israel's Shin Bet security service revealed that around 2,500 Palestinians had been arrested in Gaza during that year alone, with 650 interrogated.

In the occupied West Bank, the Shin Bet said it arrested 3,682 Palestinians.

Israel has frequently carried out arbitrary detentions, often targeting individuals without clear evidence or legal justification.

The United Nations reported that between October and December 2024, Israel arrested over 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, marking a dramatic increase in arbitrary detentions.

Many of these individuals were held without trial or charge, particularly under what is known as Israel's "administrative detention without trial or charge", which affects 3,376 Palestinians, including 92 children and 22 women.

In addition to all of these, there are more than 600 individuals sentenced to life imprisonment, with many subjected to torture, medical neglect, or even death in prison. Notable among them is Abdullah Barghouti, who has been sentenced to 67 life terms.

Among the prisoners are 21 who were arrested before the signing

This large number of prisoners is significant when considering the population of approximately six million Palestinian Arabs living in both Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

Among the imprisoned are 87 women, including four female prisoners from Gaza, most of whom are held in the Damon prison, north of Israel, according to data up to 9 January.

the Oslo Accords in 1993, the oldest of whom is Muhammad Al-Tous, who has been continuously detained since 1985.

As for children, there are more than 320 child prisoners distributed over three prisons: Damon, Mejdo and Ofer.

On 14 January, the Palestinian Prisoners Club issued a list of names of some detainees, all from the West Bank, against whom the occupation authorities issued administrative detention orders, some of which were new and others were renewals of old orders.

Tens of the prisoners were killed in torture, and many were subjected to medical neglect or were deliberately killed inside the prison, while being taken to prison, or after being released sick.

Others were also deliberately killed by snipers during the Stone and Al-Aqsa intifada.

The prisoner movement, as Palestinian political literature calls it, has 292 martyrs, 64 of whom have their bodies held by the Israeli occupation.

It is not possible to determine the exact number of martyred prisoners from Gaza since the start ogf the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.