Tel Aviv, 18 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) - A total of 1,904 Palestinians are to be released from Israeli prisons and camps during the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli government has announced.

In return, Hamas is to release 33 out of 98 Israeli hostages during the six-week pause in fighting, which is set to begin on Sunday morning.

According to the Israeli government, the Palestinians include 1,167 detained residents of the Gaza Strip who were not involved in the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel by Hamas and other extremists.

They are mainly considered to be Hamas fighters who were captured during more than 15 months of fighting.

The other 737 Palestinians to be released are imprisoned for minor offences such as stone-throwing in the West Bank or illegal border crossing, illegal weapons possession or other infractions.

However, this group also includes Palestinians serving sentences for serious crimes such as murder, according to a list published by the Israeli Justice Ministry of 22 prisoners to be released who are accused of serious attacks on Israelis.

This includes individuals such as Zakaria Zubeidi, who was the commander of the armed wing of the Fatah movement, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, in Jenin during the second Intifada from 2000.

Approximately 3,500 Palestinians and more than 1,000 Israelis were killed during the uprising from 2000 to 2005.

The list also names Mahmoud Atallah, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Palestinian woman accused of collaborating with Israel, as well as Wael Qassem and Wissam Abbasi, who are alleged to have been involved in bombings in Israel with dozens of fatalities.

However, the most prominent Palestinian prisoner in Israel, Marwan Barghouti from the Fatah leadership, is not to be released. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for five counts of murder.

Photo: EPA