Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?

Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?
Former Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, flashes victory signs as he is lifted by the crowd upon arrival with others to Ramallah after their release by Israel, Jan. 30 (AFP)
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Updated 31 January 2025
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Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?

Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?
  • U.N. data shows that one in five Palestinians in the West Bank has passed through Israeli jail
  • 23 prisoners serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt before further deportation

RAMALLAH: Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Five Thai workers held captive in the enclave were also freed in a separate deal with Thailand. Thursday's prisoner-for-hostage swap marked the third round of exchanges as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas entered its second week.
Most of the prisoners stepped off the Red Cross bus and onto the shoulders of jubilant supporters in the occupied West Bank, where U.N. data shows that one in five Palestinians has passed through Israeli jail and the release of prisoners is a source of joyous national celebration — a homecoming in which almost all Palestinians felt they could partake.
But 23 of them serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt before further deportation.
The prisoners released Thursday were all men, ranging in age from 15 to 69.
Here's a look at some prominent Palestinian prisoners released since the ceasefire deal went into effect on Jan. 19.
Zakaria Zubeidi
Zakaria Zubeidi is a prominent former militant leader and theater director whose dramatic jailbreak in 2021 thrilled Palestinians across the Middle East and stunned the Israeli security establishment.
Zubeidi once led the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — an armed group affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority — that carried out deadly attacks against Israelis during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, between 2000 and 2005.
After the intifada in 2006, Zubeidi co-founded a theater in his hometown of Jenin refugee camp, a hotbed of Palestinian militancy, to promote what he described as cultural resistance to Israel. Even today, the Freedom Theater in Jenin refugee camp puts on everything from Shakespeare to stand-up comedy to plays written by residents.
In 2019, after Zubeidi had already served years in prison for attacks in the early 2000s, Israel arrested him again over his alleged involvement in shooting attacks that targeted buses of Israeli settlers but caused no injuries.
Zubeidi, who was released Thursday, had been awaiting trial in prison. He denies the charges, saying that he gave up militancy to focus on his political activism after the intifada.
In 2021, he and five other prisoners tunneled out of a maximum-security prison in northern Israel, an escape that helped solidify Zubeidi’s image among Palestinians as a folk hero. All six were recaptured days later.
In a room packed with family members and supporters smiling, laughing, and jostling for a view of him, Zubeidi shouted to be heard over the frenzy and expressed thanks for God and his loved ones. He searched for words as reporters thrust microphones toward him, offering Islamic prayers to those wounded and killed in Gaza.
Rather than set off to Jenin camp after being freed, he stayed in Ramallah on Thursday night. Israel launched an extensive military raid earlier this month in the Jenin camp that so far has killed at least 18 Palestinians and sent scores of families fleeing.
“May God grant victory to our brothers in the Jenin camp,” Zubeidi said. His son, Mohammed, was killed in an Israeli drone strike last September in the camp.
Palestinian medics, who have raised concerns about the conditions of detainees emerging from Israeli detention, said Zubeidi looked weak and malnourished. Dr. Mai Al-Kaileh, who examined him, said his ribs had been shattered and he had lost a startling amount of weight.
“His condition is very difficult,” she said. “It's not good.”




A crowd welcomes Palestinians formerly jailed by Israel as they arrive in a Red Cross convoy to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Jan. 30 (AFP)

Mohammed Abu Warda
A Hamas militant during the second intifada, Abu Warda helped organize a series of suicide bombings that killed over 40 people and wounded more than a hundred others. Israel arrested him in 2002, and sentenced him to 48 terms of lifetime imprisonment, among the longest sentences it ever issued.
As a young student, Abu Warda joined Hamas at the start of the intifada following Israel's killing of Yahya Ayyash, the militant group's leading bomb maker, in 1996.
Palestinian authorities said at the time that Warda had helped to recruit suicide bombers — including his cousin, his cousin’s neighbor and a classmate at the Ramallah Teachers College — whose attacks targeting crowded civilian areas in Israeli cities killed scores of people in the early 2000s.
Warda was released on Thursday.

Mohammed Aradeh, 42
An activist in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Aradeh, was sentenced to life in prison for a range of offenses going back to the second intifada. Some of the charges, according to the Israeli Prison Service, included planting an explosive device and attempting murder.
He was credited with plotting the extraordinary prison escape in 2021, when he and five other detainees, including Zubeidi, used spoons to tunnel out one of Israel’s most secure prisons. They remained at large for days before being caught.
From an impoverished and politically active family in Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, Aradeh has three brothers and a sister who have all spent years in Israeli prisons.
He was welcomed as a sort of cult hero in Ramallah on Saturday as family, friends and fans swarmed him, some chanting “The freedom tunnel!” in reference to his jailbreak. When asked how he felt, Aradeh was breathless.
Over and over he muttered, “Thank God, thank God.”
Mohammed Odeh, 52, Wael Qassim, 54, and Wissam Abbasi, 48
All three men hail from the neighborhood of Silwan, in east Jerusalem, and rose within the ranks of Hamas. Held responsible for a string of deadly attacks during the second intifada, the men were sentenced to multiple life sentences in 2002.
They were accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a crowded pool hall near Tel Aviv in 2002 that killed 15 people. Later that year, they were found to have orchestrated a bombing at Hebrew University that killed nine people, including five American students. Israel had described Odeh, who was working as a painter at the university at the time, as the kingpin in the attack.
All three were transferred to Egypt last Saturday. Their families live in Jerusalem and said they will join them in exile.
The Abu Hamid brothers
Three brothers from the prominent Abu Hamid family of the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah — Nasser, 51, Mohammad, 44, and Sharif, 48 — were also deported to Egypt last Saturday. They had been sentenced to life in prison over deadly militant attacks against Israelis in 2002.
Their brother, a different Nasser Abu Hamid, was one of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. He was also sentenced to life in prison for several deadly attacks. His 2022 death from lung cancer behind bars unleashed a wave of angry protests across the West Bank as Palestinian officials accused Israel of medical neglect.
The family has a long arc of Palestinian militancy. The mother, Latifa Abu Hamid, 72, now has three sons exiled, one still imprisoned, one who died in prison and one who was killed by Israeli forces. Their family house has been demolished at least three times by Israel, which defends such punitive home demolitions as a deterrent against future attacks.
Mohammad al-Tous, 67
Al-Tous had held the title of longest continuous Israeli imprisonment until his release last Saturday, Palestinian authorities said.
First arrested in 1985 while fighting Israeli forces along the Jordanian border, the activist in the Fatah party spent a total of 39 years behind bars. Originally from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, he was among the prisoners exiled.


Japan provides $8.7 million grant for SCADA water supply system in Ma’an, Jordan

Japan provides $8.7 million grant for SCADA water supply system in Ma’an, Jordan
Updated 8 sec ago
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Japan provides $8.7 million grant for SCADA water supply system in Ma’an, Jordan

Japan provides $8.7 million grant for SCADA water supply system in Ma’an, Jordan

AMMAN: The Jordanian and Japanese governments on Sunday signed agreements for a grant worth 1.334 billion Japanese yen (about $8.7 million) to support the establishment of a SCADA water supply system in the kingdom’s Ma’an governorate.

The funding will be provided through the Japan International Cooperation Agency, t according to a report by Petra, the Jordan News Agency.

A SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system monitors and controls water systems using sensors and devices.

The agreements were signed by Jordan’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan, and the Japanese ambassador to Amman, Asari Hideki.

A separate grant agreement was signed by JICA Jordan’s chief representative, Morihata Shingo, in the presence of Minister of Water and Irrigation Raed Abu Soud.

According to a statement from Jordan’s Ministry of Water, the project will improve the operational and management efficiency of water supply facilities in Ma’an, while enhancing water supply services in the southern governorate and addressing water loss reduction.

Toukan expressed appreciation for Japan’s ongoing support, highlighting its alignment with Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision. She highlighted the strong bilateral relations between Jordan and Japan and their shared commitment to expanding cooperation across various sectors, Petra reported.

Hideki reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to supporting Jordan through financial and technical programs, noting that these initiatives will help strengthen the kingdom’s water sector. He also praised Jordan as a regional model for economic and political reforms, Petra added.

Shingo underscored the significance of the project, particularly given Jordan’s status as one of the most water-scarce countries in the world.

He also noted that JICA is currently implementing a technical cooperation project to enhance water-loss management in the southern governorates, focusing on capacity building for engineers and technicians.


Syrian national dialogue to begin on February 25

Syrian national dialogue to begin on February 25
Updated 23 February 2025
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Syrian national dialogue to begin on February 25

Syrian national dialogue to begin on February 25

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities will hold a national dialogue conference starting on February 25 to discuss a new path for the nation after the overthrow of Bashar Assad in December, two members of its preparatory committee said on Sunday.
Foreign capitals will be closely watching the conference as part of a political process in Syria that they say needs to be inclusive of its ethnically diverse and multi-religious population as they consider suspending sanctions on the country.
Holding the conference has been a key pledge of former Al Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) which took control of Damascus on December 8 in a stunning offensive that prompted then-president Assad to flee to Russia, ending more than 50 years of his family’s autocratic rule.
The preparatory committee’s seven members consulted with some 4,000 people across Syria over the last week to gather views that would help shape a constitutional declaration, a new economic framework and a plan for institutional reform, the committee told reporters on Sunday.
HTS-appointed President Ahmed Sharaa has said the conference was part of an inclusive political process to draft a constitution, which he said could take up to three years, and then hold elections, which he said could take four years.
The conference is scheduled for two days but could be extended if necessary, committee member Hassan Dugheim said, and a new government expected to be formed next month would also benefit from the conference’s recommendations.


Russia’s top diplomat to visit Turkiye Monday: sources

Russia’s top diplomat to visit Turkiye Monday: sources
Updated 23 February 2025
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Russia’s top diplomat to visit Turkiye Monday: sources

Russia’s top diplomat to visit Turkiye Monday: sources
  • Sergei Lavrov will hold talks in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan
  • Turkiye wants to play a leading role in bringing an end to Russia-Ukraine hostilities

ISTANBUL: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkiye on Monday, which marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkish diplomatic sources said Sunday.
Lavrov will hold talks in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, the source said, adding that the men will discuss the war in Ukraine, among other things.
Turkiye, a member of NATO, wants to play a leading role in bringing an end to hostilities, as it tried to do in March 2022 by twice hosting direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
Receiving his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that his country would be an “ideal host” for talks on Ukraine involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.
Moscow and Washington have already begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks, against a backdrop of rapprochement between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Russian and American officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to begin rebuilding their relations, a meeting denounced by Zelensky, who fears an agreement on Ukraine reached without him at the table.
Lavrov, who last visited Turkiye in October, is also expected to visit Russian ally Iran.


Hamas says Israel’s claim on hostages’ handover ceremony is pretext to evade Gaza truce obligations

Hamas says Israel’s claim on hostages’ handover ceremony is pretext to evade Gaza truce obligations
Updated 23 February 2025
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Hamas says Israel’s claim on hostages’ handover ceremony is pretext to evade Gaza truce obligations

Hamas says Israel’s claim on hostages’ handover ceremony is pretext to evade Gaza truce obligations
  • Israeli says waiting to deliver Palestinian prisoners "until release of next hostages has been assured"
  • Hamas has made hostages appear on stage, sometimes speak before handing them over to Israel 

DUBAI: Hamas on Sunday condemned Israel’s decision to postpone the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, saying its claim that the hostages’ handover ceremonies are “humiliating” was false and a pretext to evade Israel’s obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu’s decision reflects a deliberate attempt to disrupt the agreement, represents a clear violation of its terms, and shows the occupation’s lack of reliability in implementing its obligations,” Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said in a statement.

Israel said earlier it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners it had planned to free the day before until Hamas met its conditions, underscoring the fragility of the Gaza ceasefire accord.

Netanyahu’s office released a statement in the early hours of Sunday saying that Israel was waiting to deliver the 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees “until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies.”

Hamas’ El Rashq said the ceremonies do not include any insult to the hostages, “but rather reflect the humane and dignified treatment of them,” adding that the “real insult” is what the Palestinian prisoners are subjected to during the release process.

The Palestinian militant group official cited the hands’ tying of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees and their blindfolding and threatening them not to hold any celebrations for their release as examples of their humiliation at the hands of Israeli authorities.

Hamas has made hostages appear on stage in front of crowds and sometimes speak before they were handed over. Coffins with hostage remains have also been carried through crowds.

Israel’s announcement, which also accused Hamas of repeatedly violating the month-old ceasefire, came after the Palestinian militant group on Saturday handed over six hostages from Gaza as part of an exchange arranged under the truce.

The six hostages freed on Saturday were the last living Israeli captives due to be handed over during the first phase of the ceasefire. The bodies of four dead Israeli hostages were to be released next week.

 

 


Israel army says deploying tank division in West Bank city of Jenin

Israel army says deploying tank division in West Bank city of Jenin
Updated 23 February 2025
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Israel army says deploying tank division in West Bank city of Jenin

Israel army says deploying tank division in West Bank city of Jenin
  • Israel’s army on Sunday announced the expansion of operations in the occupied West Bank including the deployment of a tank division in the city of Jenin

JERUSALEM: Israel’s army on Sunday announced the expansion of operations in the occupied West Bank including the deployment of a tank division in the city of Jenin, the first time tanks have operated in the Palestinian territory since the end of the second intifada, or uprising, in 2005.
“IDF (military), Shin Bet (security agency), and border police forces continue their counterterrorism operation in northern Samaria (West Bank) and are expanding offensive activities in the area,” a military statement said, adding that “a tank division will operate in Jenin as part of the offensive effort.”