Who Were the Palestinian Prisoners Freed by Israel?

At the center of the Gaza cease-fire was an exchange. Hamas freed all the living hostages still in Gaza and agreed to hand over all remains of former captives, while Israel released nearly 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians.

Much of the focus was on the 250 freed Palestinians who had been convicted of involvement in violent attacks. But most of those released were Gaza residents detained by Israel during the two-year war without charges or a trial. Israel’s military said the Gazans were detained during searches for militants.

The number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons has more than doubled since the Gaza war began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It had surpassed 11,000 before the cease-fire took hold this month, according to HaMoked, an Israeli rights group. About 9,000 Palestinians remained in Israeli custody after the swap.

Over the course of the war, Israeli forces detained several thousand men, women and children from Gaza at checkpoints, homes, shelters, hospitals and even at aid distribution points. Israel routinely held them incommunicado for long periods, rights groups and Palestinians say, a practice that U.N. officials have called a form of forced disappearance.

Israeli detained thousands more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during the war, saying it was targeting militants.

Israeli and international rights groups and the United Nations have said that Israel has systematically violated detainees’ rights by holding them without charge, in secrecy and in degrading conditions. More than 75 have died in Israeli custody since the war began, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Israel says the imprisoned Palestinians are treated in accordance with international standards.

Here’s a breakdown of the Palestinians who were released recently.

Those Sentenced for Violent Attacks

Of the 1,968 Palestinians released, 250 were serving long sentences after being convicted of involvement in violent attacks on Israelis. The majority were serving life sentences.

One of the 250 freed was Ali Abdel Latif Mustafa Sais from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. He was serving a life sentence after his arrest in October 2005, according to Israel’s justice ministry.

Mr. Sais was a member of the militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to the Fatah, the Palestinian faction that dominates the West Bank, according to Israeli prosecutors, who accused him of helping to plan an attempted suicide bombing inside Israel. He denied involvement in any militant activity.

Public celebrations broke out when he returned to Jenin.

Those who were deported were sent to Egypt, where they are staying in a Cairo hotel under guard for what an official Palestinian commission that oversees prisoner affairs said was their protection.

They do not yet have passports, the commission said, and it is not clear whether they will ultimately be moved to other countries.

One of the deportees was Imad Qawasmeh, a native of the West Bank city of Hebron. Israel described him in a court filing as a Hamas commander.

He pleaded guilty in a plea deal, and was serving 16 life sentences after being convicted of directing a double suicide bombing on a bus in the Israeli city of Beersheba in August 2004 that killed 16 Israelis, Israel’s foreign ministry said.

Another exiled former prisoner was Basem Khandaqji, a writer from the West Bank city of Nablus. He was sentenced to three life terms for what Israeli prosecutors said was his role in a 2004 suicide bombing at an outdoor market in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis and injured 53.

The attack was claimed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an armed Palestinian group, his publisher said, and he denied the charges.

Mr. Khandaqji became a prominent literary figure in prison, writing several novels and poetry collections, according to his publisher.

He won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which has been called the Arab world’s equivalent of the Booker Prize, in 2024 for his novel “A Mask, the Color of the Sky.”

Gazans Detained During the War

The vast majority of Palestinians released, 1,718, were detained in Gaza during the course of the war.

Israel says all were suspected of involvement with militant activity. They were classified as “unlawful combatants,” which rights groups said stripped them of almost all due process and rights to a fair trial under Israeli law.

Palestinian critics questioned Israel’s motives, noting that many never faced any formal charges in Israeli courts. They have argued that Israel held at least some of the detainees as bargaining chips for the anticipated future exchanges with Hamas for the hostages.

Some were arrested at checkpoints set up by Israeli forces along the routes the military had told Gazans to use to flee combat areas. The Israeli military arrested other detainees during military operations.

Hundreds of medical workers were arrested, many after Israeli troops surrounded and attacked hospitals, according to rights groups.

Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, was detained in December 2023 when Israeli forces besieged the hospital for nearly two weeks, according to ActionAid, an aid group supporting the hospital. He was released this month after 22 months in custody.

His colleague, Dr. Adnan Ahmad Albursh, was also detained in December 2023. He died in Israeli custody, Palestinian officials and rights groups later said.

People Who Died in Detention

As the number of detainees in Israeli custody climbed during the war, so did accusations of abuse. At least 78 detained Palestinians have died during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society. The Israeli military has acknowledged that some of its detainees have died.

An investigation by The New York Times in 2024 found that Palestinian civilians had been held at an army base in demeaning conditions, unable to plead their cases to a judge or to see their lawyers for months. Some legal experts said these conditions violated international law.

Palestinian detainees from Gaza have been stripped, beaten, interrogated and held incommunicado for weeks, according to detainees or their relatives interviewed by The Times.

The Israeli military has denied that “systematic abuse” took place at the base and said the accusations were “inaccurate or completely unfounded.”

The Israeli military and prison authority did not respond to requests for comment on his death.

Mr. Khdeirat, who had diabetes, was arrested in May 2024 and held without charge under a measure known in Israel as administrative detention that is widely used against Palestinians.

Deceased Prisoners Who Were Returned

Under the terms of the cease-fire agreement, Israel committed to releasing the bodies of 15 deceased Palestinian prisoners in exchange for every deceased Israeli hostage returned by Hamas.

Israel has returned the bodies of almost 200 deceased Palestinians so far.

Many of the bodies handed over to Gaza bore signs of traumatic injuries, and all were unidentified except for a number assigned by Israel, according to Dr. Ahmed Dheir, a senior forensic specialist at Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military said the deceased Palestinians had been combatants during the fighting in Gaza, an assertion that The New York Times could not independently verify.

Reporting was contributed by Adam Rasgon, Johnatan Reiss, Fatima AbdulKarim and Rania Khaled.