Israel publishes list of 250 security prisoners slated for release as part of Gaza deal

Israel on Friday published the names of 250 Palestinian security prisoners it has agreed to release as part of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, and Israeli authorities began notifying families whose loved ones’ killers are set to go free.

However, Hamas’s Prisoners’ Ministry said there was no agreement yet on the identities of the prisoners to be freed, and Qatari-owned network Al Araby TV cited sources saying the list published by Israel on Friday omitted some names that mediators had agreed on.

The list, published the morning after the cabinet approved the US-backed ceasefire deal, includes members of the Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Popular Front terror groups, responsible for dozens of deadly terror attacks, but does not include some key terror chiefs Hamas has demanded, including popular Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti.

Of the 250 prisoners to be released, 15 will be freed to East Jerusalem, 100 to the West Bank and 135, who were convicted of either murder or weapons production, are slated for deportation to Gaza or elsewhere, according to the government decision published Friday.

Some last-minute changes to the list were approved by the government in a telephone vote Friday morning, after negotiators agreed to replace 11 Fatah-affiliated prisoners with Hamas-affiliated ones, nine of whom are serving life terms while the other two are serving two-year sentences due to end in June.

In addition to the 250 prisoners, Israel will release 1,722 Gazans, including 22 minors, detained amid the Gaza war who were not involved in the Hamas-led onslaught that sparked it on October 7, 2023, according to the government decision. Of the 1,722 Gazans, 1,411 are in Israeli Prison Service custody and 311 are in IDF custody, the decision said.

Israel will return “360 Gazan terrorists’ bodies,” the decision said, without specifying if any of those Gazans had taken part in the October 7 massacre. On Thursday, Hebrew media reported that Israel had rejected a Hamas demand that it return the bodies of the brothers Yahya and Mohammed Sinwar, who successively led Hamas before Israel killed them last October and this May, respectively.

Israel will release the prisoners and the bodies immediately, and only, after Hamas releases all remaining 48 hostages, including 20 who are alive, 26 confirmed dead and two for whose lives there is grave concern, the decision said. The hostages include 47 of the 251 abducted in the October 7 invasion, and the remains of a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war.

Under the ceasefire-hostage deal, Hamas was given 72 hours to release the hostages once the IDF completes its initial withdrawal. The military said Friday at noon that it had completed its withdrawal, meaning the hostages would need to be released at the same time on Monday, and the Palestinian prisoners and bodies shortly after that.

However, Hamas has said it would need more than 72 hours to unearth the remains of slain hostages. A classified appendix to the government decision released Friday details the measures Israel would take if Hamas failed to release all 48 hostages in time, according to the decision.

Among the 250 terrorists set to be released is Iyad Abu al-Rub, commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Jenin area of the West Bank. He is responsible for orchestrating and overseeing a number of terror attacks, including a suicide bombing in Shadmot Mechola in June 2003, a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in February 2004 and a suicide bombing in Hadera in 2005. In total, 13 people were killed across the three attacks.

Also due to be released are Muhammad Zakarneh, a Fatah operative who planned the 2009 attack in which taxi driver Grigory Raginovich was murdered, and Muhammad Abu al-Rub, who in 2017 carried out a stabbing attack that killed Reuven Shmerling.

Mahmoud Qawasmeh, a senior Hamas member who was released in the Shalit deal, deported to Gaza, and later re-arrested during the war in Gaza in 2024, will also be released.

Besides Barghouti — the Tanzim chief jailed for multiple murders in the 2000-2005 Second Intifada — the prominent terrorists who are not slated for release, despite reportedly being demanded by Hamas, include Ahmad Sa’adat, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Ibrahim Hamed, serving 45 life terms for orchestrating the killings of numerous Israelis as Hamas’s West Bank commander during the second intifada; Abbas al-Sayed, who orchestrated the 2002 bombing at the Park Hotel in Netanya in which 39 Israelis were killed; and Hamas’s Hassan Salameh, who is serving 48 life terms for multiple suicide bombings.

Hamas’s leadership had relayed to interlocutors earlier this week that “Barghouti’s fate remains absolutely central to these talks,” a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

The 66-year-old has been described as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as he has appeal among broad swaths of the Palestinian population, while maintaining support for a two-state solution.

Among the 11 Hamas-affiliated prisoners added to the release list at the last minute are Mahmoud Issa, who has been in jail since 1993 for his part in the abduction and murder of Nissim Toledano the previous year; and Raed Sheikh, jailed for his part in the 2002 Ramallah lynch, when a Palestinian mob killed two IDF soldiers who had mistakenly entered the West Bank city.

The families of terror victims killed by prisoners set to be released will be notified by the National Insurance Institute, while the families of fallen soldiers, police officers, and members of other security bodies will be notified by the IDF, Israel Police, or other respective security agencies.

The Defense Ministry said it is “coordinating and overseeing the activity between the various bodies.”

Dani Dagan, whose father Yossi Avrahami was murdered in the 2022 Ramallah lynch, told Channel 12 that she has “very mixed feelings” about the prisoners’ release.

“But as far as I’m concerned, there’s no doubt that everyone needs to come home — the living [hostages] to their families, their children, their parents and the dead to a proper burial,” she added.

“It’s true, we’re paying a very heavy price,” she said. “I think this deal should have been signed and executed a long time ago, but I’m very, very glad it’s finally happening.”