Key prisoner exchanges that freed detainees from Israeli prisons

For two years Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, have endured harsh days because of the Israeli war that ended with a signed ceasefire agreement. Yesterday saw a prisoner exchange between “Israel” and the resistance, freeing (1968) Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, including (250) serving life sentences, a number of prisoners serving long terms or expected to be sentenced to life, and (1718) prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after the assault on Gaza.

The releases were carried out based on the lists officially published today, which were agreed as part of the recently reached agreement to end the war and implement the ceasefire.

The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a joint statement that this deal is the third since the start of the war of extermination: in November 2023 (240) prisoners were freed in several batches; in January and February of this year (1777) prisoners were freed in successive stages. That brings the total freed in the three deals since the start of the offensive to (3985) prisoners of various categories.

The authority and the club added that the images and footage released by the prisoners freed today constitute further evidence of the brutality and criminality still being perpetrated against thousands of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli jails and camps.

Many prisoners — notably those from the Gaza Strip — showed clear signs of physical and psychological torture, and cases of mistreatment were documented up to the last moments before their release. The repression did not stop with the prisoners themselves but extended to their families in the West Bank and Jerusalem, who were subjected to organized intimidation and threats aimed at preventing them from staging any celebrations or appearing in the media. Human rights organizations recorded at least (70) arrests among prisoners released in previous deals; some were later freed while others remain detained.

Since the outbreak of the war of extermination, prisoners in Israeli jails and camps have faced a series of systematic crimes amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, most notably: physical and psychological torture, systematic starvation, denial of treatment and medical care, and imposed conditions that led to the spread of disease and epidemics; mass isolation; and policies of looting and deprivation that affected many aspects of detention life. Prisons have also witnessed organized crackdowns carried out by special units of the prison service, such as “Keter”, “Metzada” and “Nakhshon”, which have included violent physical assaults, use of gas, stun grenades and electroshock devices, as well as practices of humiliation and strip-searches, sexual assaults including rape, and using disease as a method of torture, as in the outbreak of scabies.

Added to this are psychological terror, solitary confinement, threats of killing and execution, alongside a rise in arbitrary arrests, expanded use of administrative detention, the detention of hundreds on charges of “incitement”, and the classification of most Gaza detainees as “illegal combatants” — a designation that has enabled the occupation to commit further serious violations against them, including enforced disappearance.

At least (78) prisoners and detainees have been killed inside Israeli prisons and camps as a result of these crimes, while a number of the dead remain subject to enforced disappearance, making this the bloodiest period in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

After today’s exchange deal, the number of prisoners remaining in Israeli jails is estimated at more than (9100) detainees — a figure that counts only those held in central prisons, while hundreds remain detained in camps run by the occupation army.

The number of female prisoners reached (52) following the release of Mervat Sarhan and Siham Abu Salem, and around (400) children remain in detention.

The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners’ Club renewed their calls to the international human rights system, and following the ceasefire decision urged serious intervention to end an unprecedented paralysis during this war, to halt another facet of extermination inside Israeli prisons, to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisoners and detainees, to end the crime of enforced disappearance affecting many Gaza detainees, and to release them immediately.

Major Palestinian prisoner exchanges

1- On 23 July 1968 the first exchange took place between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the government of the occupying power after fighters belonging to one of the PLO factions (the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) hijacked an El Al plane. The deal, brokered with the occupation state through the International Committee of the Red Cross, saw passengers freed in exchange for (37) Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences, including Palestinian prisoners who had been captured before 1967.

2- On 28 January 1971 a new exchange took place between a PLO faction (the Palestinian National Liberation Movement – Fatah) and the Israeli government, as a prisoner-for-prisoner swap. Israel released Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi in return for the release of Israeli soldier Shmuel Faiz, whom Fatah had seized in late 1969.

Hijazi was the first Palestinian prisoner in the contemporary Palestinian revolution after its launch on 1 January 1965; he was arrested on 18 January 1965 and sentenced to death at the time, though the sentence was not carried out. The exchange was held at Ras Naqurah under the auspices of the Red Cross. Hijazi went to Lebanon and later returned to Gaza with Palestinian forces after the Oslo Accords in 1994, and died in Ramallah in 2021.

3- On 14 March 1979 the Litani operation, also called “Operation Seagull,” took place when the Popular Front – General Command, a PLO faction, released an Israeli soldier captured during the Litani operation. In return Israel freed (76) detainees from across the Palestinian revolutionary factions who had been held in its prisons, including (12) female prisoners.

4- On 23 November 1983 another exchange occurred between the Israeli government and the Palestinian National Liberation Movement – Fatah. Israel released all detainees held at the Ansar detention center in southern Lebanon — numbering (4,700) Palestinian and Lebanese detainees — and (65) prisoners from Israeli jails, in exchange for the release of six Israeli soldiers.

5- On 20 May 1985 an exchange with the Popular Front – General Command, known as “Operation Galilee,” resulted in Israel releasing (1,155) prisoners detained in its various jails. Of these, (883) had been held in prisons located in the occupied Palestinian territories, (118) had been taken from Ansar during the 1983 exchange with Fatah, and (154) had been transferred from Ansar to Atlit during the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. The exchange was in return for three soldiers held by the Popular Front.

6- On 1 October 2009 Israel released twenty female Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in return for receiving information about the status of soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Palestinian factions in Gaza since 25 June 2006. This was achieved by obtaining a two-minute, recently filmed video showing Shalit alive and apparently healthy; the “video tape” deal was considered part of negotiations for a larger exchange.

On 18 October 2011 the exchange known as “Wafa al-Ahrar” (Loyalty to the Free) took place between the Palestinian factions holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the Israeli government, mediated by Egypt. Under the deal Shalit — who had been held by Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip since 26 June 2006 — was released in exchange for Israel freeing (1,027) prisoners who had been held in its jails and detention centers, including (994) men and (33) women. As part of the deal (205) of the prisoners were transferred to Gaza and abroad, including 163 prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem who were relocated to Gaza, and 42 sent abroad.

8- On 22 November 2023 a humanitarian truce in Gaza was announced that included the release of 50 hostages held by resistance factions in exchange for the release of 150 prisoners over four days. The truce was extended for three days and the total number freed rose to 240, including (169) children and youths and (71) female prisoners.

9- In January and February 2025 (1,777) prisoners were freed in seven successive batches, including prisoners from Gaza arrested after the war of extermination.

10- On 13 October 2025 (1,968) prisoners were freed as part of the ceasefire agreement, including (1,718) Gaza prisoners who had been arrested after the war of extermination.