After almost 7 hours since the release of the three Israeli women, 90 Palestinian prisoners were released on Sunday night under the ceasefire agreement with Gaza.
Two buses with dark windows left the Israeli prison of Ofer, in the West Bank, shortly after 1 a.m. this Monday (local time).
Immediately after, the official statement arrived: “Tonight, 90 terrorists were (…) released” from the Ofer military prisonin the West Bank, and from a detention center in Jerusalem, said the Israeli prison authority as a crowd was exultant as the bus passed.
Among those detained is Khalida Jarrar, almost a historical figure of Palestinian activism: She is 62 years old and is a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization active since the 1960s, also a protagonist of the Second Intifada and which is designated by Israel, the United States and the European Union (EU) as a terrorist organization.
In 2015, the sentence was 15 months in prison for incitement and membership in a banned organization and the most recent arrest in December 2023, with the last six months spent in solitary confinement in a small cell, according to some reports. A precedent related to his periods in prison concerns the death of his daughter Suha, in 2021, Khalida was denied permission on humanitarian grounds to attend the funeral.
Among the women who appear on the list is Dalal Khaseeb, 53, sister of former deputy Hamas commander Saleh Arouri, killed in an Israeli attack in a southern suburb of Beirut a year ago.
Then there is Abla Abdelrasoul, 68, wife of the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad Saadat, who in 2001 murdered an Israeli minister and is serving a 30-year sentence.
There are 21 minors and among them the youngest, he is 15 years old, his name is Mahmoud Aliowat and is accused of an attack in Jerusalem in 2023.
According to the list published by the Ministry of Justice, in this first phase of application of the agreement, the release of detainees is expected from 2020, of which 66 in the last year alone.
Five are suspected of attempted murder, three of homicide and seven of assault. Ten were convicted, 31 are detained without trial and 51 are awaiting trial.
Al Jazeera gives more details about the list and names 76 prisoners from the West Bank and 14 from East Jerusalem.
Earlier, at the beginning of the ceasefire, it was the Islamist group that began the exchange and freed three women, who had been captured on October 7, 2023, during the attack on southern Israel. Two young women captured in a kibbutz and another at a music festival.
They are Doron Steinbrecher, 31, Emily Damari, 28, a British-Israeli national and Romi Gonen, 24, and more hostages are scheduled to be released next week.