Israel plans to release 95 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, coinciding with the implementation of a Gaza ceasefire agreement. The Israeli Justice Ministry has disclosed the names of the individuals to be freed, which include women and young men under 25. Among the notable figures on the list is Dalal al Arouri, sister of Saleh al Arouri, Hamas’s deputy leader, who was assassinated last year.
Also set for release is journalist Bushra al Taweel, previously freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel. She is the daughter of senior Hamas leader Jamal al Taweel, who once served as mayor of Al Bireh in the occupied West Bank. Khalida Jarrar, a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a parliamentarian, is also among those to be released.
Currently, there are 10,400 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, excluding those detained during the last 15 months of conflict in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
Some Palestinian prisoners have been incarcerated for decades. For instance, Abdallah al Barghouti was sentenced to 67 life terms in 2004 for his involvement in attacks in 2001 and 2002. Ibrahim Hamed, arrested in 2006, received 54 life terms and endured the demolition of his home.
Nael Barghouti, born in 1957, holds the record for the longest time spent in Israeli jails—44 years. First arrested in 1978 for participating in an attack that killed an Israeli soldier, he was released in 2011, married a fellow former prisoner, but was re-arrested in 2014.
Other notable detainees include Hassan Salama, sentenced to 48 life terms in 1996; Marwan al Barghouti, a senior Fatah member serving five life terms since 2004; and Ahmed Saadat, leader of the PFLP, serving a 30-year sentence since 2008.
