During the first phase of a hostage release agreement with the Hamas terror group, Israel will exchange more than 1,900 Palestinian security prisoners for 33 of the remaining hostages in Gaza over 42 days

Among those released are 737 detainees and security prisoners, some of whom are serving life sentences for murder.

The high price Israel must pay to bring home the men, women, and children held captive since October 7, 2023, becomes all the more clear when you know who the prisoners are and what they’ve done.

How are the exchange numbers configured?

In exchange for an untold number of hostages’ bodies, either kidnapped dead or alive, held in Gaza, Israel will release more than 1,000 Gazans who, though they did not participate in the October 7 terror attack, were believed to have ties to Hamas. Most, if not all of them, were detained by IDF troops during Israel’s efforts in Gaza to secure evacuated areas and collect intelligence about Hamas operations.

The breakdown of the remaining 900 prisoners in the exchange is this: Israel will release 30 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for each of the living women, children, and elderly taken from Israel on October 7 and 50 prisoners for each of the five female IDF soldiers. To secure the release of all nine hostages now facing health concerns, Israel will release 110 more prisoners.

Even Israelis held in captivity in Gaza prior to October 7, 2023 are part of the agreement: Ethiopian-Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Arab Israeli Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held in Gaza after crossing the border in 2014 and 2015, will be exchanged for 30 prisoners each plus 47 additional Palestinians who had been re-arrested after being freed in the 2011 deal with Hamas to secure the release of IDF Soldier Gilad Shalit. Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack, was also among the 1,027 prisoners released during the Shalit deal. He was killed by the IDF in October 2024.

Who are the prisoners being freed?

The majority of Palestinians to be released during the first stage of the hostage deal are Gazans who did not participate in the October 7 attack, but were detained as part of the IDF’s efforts to remove Hamas elements or influence from Gaza.

However, among the 737 security prisoners that are to be released in the first phase are members of Fatah or the terror groups Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), many of whom have been serving life sentences for murder and terror attacks. They include three architects of the Jerusalem bus bombing on June 11, 2003, the perpetrator in a 2018 terror stabbing in the West Bank, and one of the organizers of a December 2002 attack inside the kitchen of a yeshiva, killing two students and two IDF soldiers.

Here are some of the murderers and convicted terrorists slated to be released as part of the agreement:

Zakaria Zubeidi

Terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, the former Jenin commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, was detained in 2019 for his part in shootings near Beit El in the West Bank. He also is tied to multiple terror attacks, including a bombing that killed six people at a Beit Shean polling station where members of the Likud party were casting votes in the 2002 primary.

In September 2021, he and five PIJ terrorists escaped from the Gilboa Prison, a maximum-security penitentiary in northern Israel, only to be captured days later.

Iyad Jradat and Ahmed Dahiri

Iyad Jradat, one of five PIJ terrorists charged with assisting that prison break, is also set to be freed under the agreement. He is serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 2003 terror attack in Moshav Gadish, killing one and wounding four others. Ahmed Dahiri, a senior PIJ official convicted of the murder in that terror attack, will also be freed.

Mahmoud Atallah

Mahmoud Atallah has been serving a life sentence plus 15 years for killing a Palestinian woman he suspected of collaborating with Israel. Atallah also was indicted in September for raping a female prison guard at Gilboa Prison and sexually abusing two others. Those women have asked that he be forced to return and stand trial after this prisoner swap.

Wael Qissam, Wissam Abbasi and Muhammad Odeh

Wael Qissam, Wissam Abbasi, and Muhammad Odeh carried out five bombings across Israel between March and June 2002, killing 35 people and wounding hundreds.

All three are members of the so-called Silwan Squadron, a Hamas terror cell named for its members’ East Jerusalem neighborhood.  

Ahmed Barghouti

Ahmed Barghouti, operational commander for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, has been serving 13 life sentences in Israel for involvement in terror attacks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that killed six people, including a police officer. A close aide to Marwan Barghouti, he was arrested alongside him in Ramallah in 2002. Ahmed was responsible for supplying weapons to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, also known as the military wing of Fatah.

Khalida Jarrar

Khalida Jarrar, a Palestinian Authority lawmaker from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a decades-old anti-Israel group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, Japan, and the European Union for its numerous terror attacks and plane hijackings.

Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group stormed outposts and watchtowers of the Israeli Defense Forces on October 7, according to videos shared by the PFLP. It has since fought alongside Hamas and other terrorists inside Gaza. 

Jarrar was accused of orchestrating the 2019 bombing that killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and wounded her brother and father at a popular hiking spot in the West Bank. As part of a plea deal, Jarrar was charged with “illegal association” and sentenced to two years in prison in 2021. Her most recent arrest was on December 26, 2023.

Khalil Jabarin

Khalil Jabarin stabbed Ari Fuld, a father of four, multiple times in the back and neck as he was standing outside a West Bank supermarket in 2018.

Severely wounded, Fuld pursued and shot Jabarin as he attacked three others but collapsed and died later in a hospital.

As part of its “pay-for-slay” policy, the Palestinian Authority paid Jabarin’s family a monthly stipend as a reward for murdering the Israeli, with plans to increase the amount the longer Jabarin remained behind bars. In 2023, it doubled the stipend from $522 to $1,044. It’s unclear if the family will continue to receive the monetary reward after Jabarin’s release.

Mohammed Abu Warda

Mohammed Abu Warda was responsible for the 1996 Jerusalem bus bombings on Israel's Route 18, which killed 44 people, and a deadly attack at an Ashkelon hitchhiking post that same year. For his role in these attacks, he was sentenced to 48 life terms.

Ismail Radideh

Ismail Radaideh, who is serving a life sentence and member of Fatah’s Force 17, was convicted of murdering Greek Orthodox monk Tsiboktakis Germanos in 2001 and plotting an attack on Hebrew University.

Ashraf Abu-Srour
 

Ashraf Abu-Srour, a member of the Palestinian Authority, was convicted of shooting and killing Israeli soldier Shahar Vekart near Rachel’s Tomb in 2000