The first ninety Palestinian prisoners were released on Sunday night. This is reported by the Reuters news agency based on the Israeli prison service. Buses had been waiting for the prisoners at the Ofer military prison since Sunday afternoon, but it was only hours later that they were actually released and taken by bus to Beitunia on the West Bank. There they were received to the loud cheers of hundreds of Palestinians.
The ninety freed Palestinians are all women or children. Among them is Khalida Jarrar, a politician and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the occupied West Bank. Jarrar was imprisoned several times by Israeli authorities, including for sedition for publicly speaking out against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Since her arrest in December 2023, her detention has been extended by six months.
Another woman released is 53-year-old Dalal Khaseeb. She is the sister of the deceased Hamas official Saleh Arouri. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut in January last year.
‘Administrative detention’
According to Al Jazeera, the prisoners include many children who were held for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. It is unknown how long they were held captive. Many of the prisoners who will be released are in so-called ‘administrative detention’. They were detained without charge. Under Israeli law, people can be detained without charge for six to eight months if Israeli authorities believe they pose a threat to state security. Such an administrative detention can always be extended.
According to the Palestinian Commission for Detainee and Ex-Detainee Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, more than 10,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank are currently in Israeli prisons. The number of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip imprisoned by Israel during the war is unknown.
Over the next six weeks, 33 Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza Strip will be gradually released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.