Under the terms of the agreement, Israel will release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners during an initial 42-day ceasefire, starting with at least 90 on Sunday and three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The plan is to release them in exchange for humans.
Israelis claim that many of the prisoners are terrorists and murderers. Many Palestinians view the jailed militants as freedom fighters against Israeli rule, and say others were also imprisoned by an unfair Israeli military justice system.
Here are some of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners scheduled to be released under the ceasefire, according to the Israeli Ministry of Justice.
Zakaria Zubeidi
For the past two decades, Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, has been a militant, theater director and escaped prisoner who has shocked Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Zubeidi rose to fame as an extremist leader during the second intifada (uprising) in the early 2000s, during which Palestinian extremists carried out attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings targeting civilian streets. carried out a deadly attack.
Israel responded by reoccupying major Palestinian cities during urban warfare. Some of the heaviest fighting occurred in the Palestinian city of Jenin, Zubeidi’s hometown. He later emerged as the top commander of the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, an armed militia loosely tied to the secular Fatah party, the dominant Palestinian political faction in the West Bank.
After the uprising, Zubeidi went to work. A theater inside the strict Jenin refugee camp. In 2019, Israel arrested him again on suspicion of returning to combat activities.
Two years later, Zubeidi and five other Palestinian prisoners escaped by crawling nearly 32 yards through an underground tunnel outside one of Israel’s high-security prisons. Although they were later recaptured, the security breach shocked Israelis and excited Palestinians.
In September, Zubeidi’s son Mohammad was killed in an Israeli drone strike. The Israeli military called his son a “serious terrorist” and said he was involved in shooting at Israeli troops.
Wissam Abbasi, Mohammad Odeh, Wael Qasim
Wissam Abbasi, 48, Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qasim, 54, were imprisoned in 2002 for carrying out Hamas attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada. It was done. According to Israel’s Ministry of Justice, the three men were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and a series of other crimes.
Current Israeli media reports say the men were among several people convicted of the crime. Involved in Hamas cells in Jerusalem It triggered a series of bombings that killed more than 30 Israelis in crowded civilian areas.
The attacks included a deadly Hamas bombing at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. 9 peopleAccording to Israeli authorities, four Americans were among those killed.
Odeh, who worked as a painter at the university, planted a bomb in the cafeteria and covered it with newspaper, The New York Times reported at the time, citing Israeli officials. As he left, the man used his cell phone to remotely detonate the explosives, officials said.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the men will not be allowed to return to their homes in Jerusalem, the Israeli Ministry of Justice said. They are forced to live in exile, but it is unclear where they will be allowed to go.
