Much is still unclear about the over 1,900 Palestinians who Israel is releasing in exchange for the remaining Israelis who have been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Israel has released a list of around 250 of the Palestinians who are being released. Among them are 159 people who are affiliated with Fatah, which is Hamas' rival and the political party that governs the Palestinian authority on the occupied West Bank. There are also 63 people who are affiliated with Hamas. The rest of the around 250 are independent or belong to other Palestinian groups.
Allowed to return to Gaza
However, there are no high-profile Palestinian prisoners, such as Marwan Barghouti, who is often mentioned as a possible successor to the Palestinian president on the West Bank, Mahmud Abbas.
Many on the list have been imprisoned since the second Palestinian uprising, the intifada, in the early 2000s. One of them is a 51-year-old police officer who was convicted of involvement in the storming of an Israeli police station where two Israeli soldiers were killed by a Palestinian crowd. Two brothers who were convicted of murder of Israeli civilians in 1993 are also among those being released.
The majority of the prisoners who are now being released have been sent to Gaza, the rest will be allowed to return to the West Bank or be exiled abroad.
Without trial
Hamas has released its own list of Palestinians who are being released. On the list, which has not been confirmed by Israel, are around 1,700 of the thousands of Palestinians who have been detained during the Gaza war that began over two years ago. This means that around 1,300 Palestinians from Gaza will remain detained by Israel, according to a compilation by the Israeli human rights group Hamoked in September.
Most of the prisoners on the list have been imprisoned under an Israeli law that was enacted at the beginning of the war, which makes it possible for Israel to detain Palestinians as "unlawful combatants" without judicial review or access to a lawyer for the accused.
Both human rights groups and the UN have reported routine abuses in Israeli prisons, including mistreatment and inadequate food. Israel claims that it follows statutory prison standards and investigates all reports of violations.
