Israel-Hamas Gaza Ceasefire Nears: Live Updates


Israel is to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners during an initial 42-day ceasefire, under the terms of the deal, starting with at least 90 on Sunday in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Israelis say many of the prisoners are terrorists and murderers. Many Palestinians see the imprisoned militants as freedom fighters against Israeli rule and claim that others were imprisoned by Israel’s unjust military justice system.

Here are some of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners to be released under the ceasefire, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry.

Zakaria Zubeidi

For the past two decades, Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, has been a militant, theater director and escaped prisoner whose escape stunned Israelis and Palestinians.

Mr. Zubeidi rose to prominence as a militant leader during the Second Intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s, during which Palestinian militants carried out deadly attacks on Israelis, including suicide bombings on civilian roads.

Israel responded by reoccupying major Palestinian cities amid street fighting. Some of the fiercest fighting took place in the Palestinian city of Jenin, Mr. Zubeidi’s hometown. He later emerged as the commander-in-chief of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed militia loosely affiliated with the secular Fatah party, the dominant Palestinian political faction in the West Bank.

After the uprising Mr. Zubeidi worked at theater in the tough Jenin refugee camp. In 2019, Israel arrested him again on charges that he had returned to militancy.

Two years later, Mr. Zubeidi and five other Palestinian prisoners conducted a prison break crawling nearly 32 yards through an underground tunnel outside one of Israel’s maximum security prisons. Although they were later recaptured, the security breach shocked the Israelis and delighted the Palestinians.

The Israeli drone attack killed the son of Mr. Zubeidi, Mohammad, in September. The Israeli military called the son a “significant terrorist” and said he was involved in shooting at Israeli troops.

Wissam Abbasi, Mohammad Odeh and Wael Qassim

Wissam Abbasi, 48, Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qassim, 54, were jailed in 2002 on charges of carrying out Hamas attacks on Israelis during the Second Intifada. According to the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the three men were sentenced to life in prison for the murder and a number of other crimes.

According to contemporary Israeli media reports, the men were among several convicted of involved in a Hamas cell in Jerusalem who was responsible for a series of bombings that killed more than 30 Israelis in crowded civilian areas.

The attacks included a Hamas bombing of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in which they were killed nine peopleincluding four US citizens, according to Israeli authorities.

Mr. 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 timeciting Israeli officials. When he left, he remotely set off the explosives with a cell phone, officials said.

Under the terms of the cease-fire agreement, the men will not be allowed to return to their homes in Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry. They will be required to live in exile, although it is not clear where they will be allowed to go.

Khalida Jarrar, center, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah in February 2019 after being released from an Israeli prison.Credit…Abbas Momani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Khalida Jarrar

One of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners expected to be released as early as Sunday is Khalida Jarrar, 62, the leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Ms. Jarrar, a prominent activist for the rights of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, was elected to the Palestinian parliament in the 2006 elections.

The United States and the European Union consider the Popular Front a terrorist organization. The group became notorious in the late 1960s for the series plane hijackingas well as other attacks, including during the Second Intifada.

Ghassan Jarrar, her husband, said in a telephone interview that Israeli authorities have not allowed him to visit his wife since her arrest in December 2023. He has been catching any news of her condition he can get from her lawyer’s infrequent visits, he said.

Ms. Jarrar has spent much of the past decade in and out of Israeli prison, although she was not convicted of direct involvement in the Popular Front’s military activities. In 2015, she was sentenced to 15 months for incitement and belonging to a banned organization.

In recent years, Israel has largely held Ms. Jarrar without formal charges. Human rights groups call the practice a serious violation of due process, while Israel says it is sometimes necessary to protect sensitive intelligence.

In 2021, her daughter Suha died while Ms. Jarrar was being held in an Israeli prison. Israel rejected a request to grant her humanitarian leave to attend the funeral.



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