Who are the jailed Palestinians being released by Israel?

As the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza, around 2,000 Palestinian detainees are set to be released by Israel as part of the deal brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US.

This number includes 1,167 people taken by the Israeli army in Gaza and transferred to Israel, and 737 others who come from Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The release of the detainees has been celebrated by Palestinians across the occupied territories, and was a key demand made by Hamas when it took over 200 Israelis captive on 7 October. 

Israel is holding around 10,400 Palestinians in detention, according to rights group Addameer, with an unknown number of Palestinians having also been abducted from the Gaza Strip by Israel since October 2023.

Who has been released so far?

On Monday, 90 Palestinians were released from detention, including 69 women and 21 boys — the youngest being 15-year-old Mahmoud Aliowat

Many of those released were recently detained by Israel or were held without charge or trial under administrative detention — a system which allows Israeli authorities to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge.

Activist and politician Khalida Jarrar, 62, was one of the administrative detainees released on Sunday. Jarrar, a prominent leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), had been held in solitary confinement for six months during her latest stint in detention.

Jarrar has spent more than six years in Israeli prisons, having been detained five times in the past decade. While imprisoned in 2021, she was prevented from attending the funeral of her daughter Suha, a researcher and social justice activist.

Journalist Bushra al-Tawil was released, having been detained without charge in March 2024. Al-Tawil was previously detained by Israeli forces in 2011, when she was handed a 16-month sentence. She was released five months later as part of the prisoner exchange involving captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israeli forces re-arrested al-Tawil in 2014, with her initial sentence being re-imposed by a secret military committee.

Israel is also holding al-Tawil’s father, Jamal, a Hamas leader and former mayor of al-Bireh city in the occupied West Bank.

Dalal al-Arouri, a sister of slain Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri, was also among those released on Monday, as well as Abla Abdul-Rasoul, wife of imprisoned PFLP secretary general Ahmed Saadat.

The group of 90 detainees released on Monday followed Hamas’ freeing of three female Israeli captives on Sunday.

A total of 33 Israelis, including captured soldiers, will be released by Hamas in the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinian detainees.

Who else will be released from Israeli detention?

Hamas has said that it will push for the release of top Palestinian political leaders Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Saadat in the next round of the ceasefire.

Barghouti, a hugely popular Palestinian figure, has been imprisoned by Israel since 2002 after an Israeli court convicted him of murder, claiming he was behind attacks in Israel, handing him five life sentences. The 66-year-old is widely seen as a unifying figure among Palestinians, and analysts say he would likely win a presidential election if he stood for office.

PFLP secretary-general Saadat has been in prison since 2002 for arms smuggling. He was kept in a jail under US, British and Canadian supervision before being moved to an Israeli detention facility in 2006.

Israel has repeatedly rejected calls for the two to be released, including in recent talks.

Israel is also expected to release some Palestinian prisoners into Gaza. It will deport others to Egypt with the understanding that they will be settled in a third country, with Qatar, Turkey or Algeria as possible destinations, an official involved in the plans told Reuters.