How many Palestinian prisoners are there in Israeli prisons and what is known about those who will be released in exchange for the hostages held by Hamas?

After weeks of failed attempts, the Israeli government and Hamas reached an agreement to exchange some of the hostages held by the militant group for Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel.

Under the agreement, which will be implemented this Thursday, Hamas will release a total of 50 hostages, women and children, in the first phase, at a rate of 12 per day. Israel will in turn release 150 prisoners.

In a second phase, the ceasefire will be extended by the day for every ten hostages released by Hamas.

Hamas, considered a terrorist group by powers including the U.S. and the European Union, kidnapped about 240 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7 when it attacked Israel by surprise, killing about 1,200 people.

The hostages include babies, children and the elderly. Since, Four kidnapped people have been released, one was rescued and two other people were found dead.

In six weeks, Israeli bombing of Gaza has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians.

Several human rights groups estimate the Palestinian population imprisoned in Israeli prisons at around 7,000 people, some without trial, and almost all subject to military courts.

Over the years, the UN has been highly critical of Israel for its treatment of Palestinian prisoners, saying entire generations have suffered “arbitrary, widespread and systematic deprivations of liberty under the Israeli occupation.”

Who are the prisoners on the Israeli list?

Israel published a list of 300 names of Palestinian prisoners who could be released following the deal reached with Hamas.

Among them, 274 are men and 123 are under the age of 18. Among them are five who are only 14 years old and who, according to Israeli authorities, have been imprisoned for throwing Molotov cocktails or trying to start fires.

The list was published because Israeli law requires that before prisoners are released, Israelis must be notified within 24 hours if they wish to appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court, which has delayed the exchange.

The Israeli government refused to release prisoners convicted of murderbut he did accept that prisoners tried for attempted murder could be released from prison, as is the case with some Palestinian women who could be part of the agreement.

Most of the convictions among Palestinians on the list published by Israel concern crimes such as throwing stones or Molotov cocktails, obstructing the work of police, illegal demonstrations, arson or possession of weapons or explosives.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the prisoners belong to Hamas, Al Fatah, Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front, although many of them acted freely. Moreover, a large number of them have been arrested but have not yet been tried.

The numbers

Before the start of the war, the UN estimated the number of Palestinian prisoners at around 5,000, including 160 children, according to the report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese. last June.

Of those 5,000, about 1,100 were detained without charge or trial.

However, since October 7, these numbers have grown exponentially until reaching the level According to human rights organizations, there are 7,000.

Addameer, an organization that supports Palestinian political prisoners and their families, estimates that 3,035 people have been arrested in raids on the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the war in Gaza.

Israel assures that these arrests are part of anti-terrorist operations targeting Hamas members in the West Bank.

However, according to Addameer’s figures, recent prisoners include more than 200 children, 101 women, 40 journalists, 14 members of the Legislative Council and 50 university students, the NGO said.

Some of them have now been released.

In total, Israeli prisons hold more than 7,000 Palestinians, lawyer Tala Nasir, who works with Addameer, which means “conscience” in Arabic, told BBC Mundo. The organization uses data from the Israeli Prison Service, which manages Israeli prisons, and from prisoners’ families.

Israel classified Addameer as a “terrorist” organization in 2021, along with five other Palestinian human rights groups, a designation that both the UN and other international human rights organizations rejected.

Six Palestinian prisoners also died last month. in Israeli detention centers. Four of them had been arrested after the outbreak of war.

Tala Nasir assures that “at the moment we do not know under what circumstances they died, because the International Committee of the Red Cross has not had access to the prisoners since October 7.” The ages of the deceased, all men, are between 25 and 58 years old.

According to Francesca Albanese’s report, “since 1967, more than 800,000 Palestinians, including children, have been detained under a series of authoritarian rules promulgated, imposed and dictated by the Israeli army.”

Israel rejected his conclusions, claiming that his mandate was created solely for the sole purpose of “discriminating against Israel and Israelis.”

administrative detention

Of the latest detainees, more than 2,500 are in administrative detention, according to Addameeen, a figure that Nasir says is ‘unprecedented’.

Other Israeli organizations, such as the Center for the Defense of the Individual, HaMoked, estimated on November 1 that 2,070 Palestinians were being held under this regime.

“Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners.”without charge, without trial, indefinitely, under secret summarySo there is no fair trial, no guarantee and sometimes no trial at all,” the Palestinian lawyer explains.

Israel relies on three different laws to carry out these types of arrests, which human rights groups say can take up to two years.

“It is supposedly intended for extreme situations where, for example, there is a bomb and you have to stop someone from doing something specific, but in Palestine Israel uses it in a much more liberal way, and this is clearly a violation of human rights.” “Roy Yellin, from the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem, explains to BBC Mundo.

Children also occur in this situation.

The agreement between Israel and Hamas on the exchange of hostages for prisoners was welcomed by human rights groups.

“Taking people hostage is itself illegal, a war crime, and Hamas should release all hostages unconditionally,” HaMoked director Jessica Montell said in a statement, also assuring that the Palestinian women and children held in administrative detention “ should also be released.” released unconditionally.”

Military trials

Because the West Bank and East Jerusalem are under Israeli occupation and under the jurisdiction of the Israeli military, Palestinians arrested in these areas are subject to military trials.

“These are courts in which the judge is a soldier and so is the prosecutor. It is a system that is not considered very fair,” Yellin criticizes.

“Many sentences are also compliant, as Israel holds the Palestinians until the end of the trial and some, if arrested for things like throwing stones, something for which no one in Israel would ever be charged, prefer to spend several months to accept. in jail than going through a process that could take much longer and in which they will spend all that time in jail,” said Roy Yellin.

According to data from B’Tselem and other organizations, most crimes committed by Palestinians are “not crimes like murder or rape, but rather crimes like throwing stones at soldiers or even participating in a protest, because Palestinians have no right to participate to demonstrations against the occupation,” says Yellin. (JO)