Who Are the Palestinian Prisoners Who May Be Launched within the Hostage Deal?

Negotiations across the launch of Israeli ladies and youngsters held hostage in Gaza have centered on an alternate for Palestinian ladies and minors held in Israeli prisons. The scale of that group has grown shortly through the six weeks of warfare and upheaval for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel, in accordance with a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group.

The group, Addameer, says that about 200 boys, most of them youngsters, have been in Israeli detention as of this week, together with about 75 ladies and 5 teenage women. Earlier than Oct. 7, about 150 boys and 30 ladies and women have been in Israeli prisons, it mentioned, and since then, many different detentions have occurred, in addition to many releases.

Addameer mentioned that it compiled the figures utilizing information from the Israel Jail Service, which administers the nation’s jails, and data from the households of detained individuals.

Most of the most up-to-date arrests got here throughout raids throughout the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, the place protests and violence have surged, together with assaults on Palestinians by Israeli settlers. Israel has mentioned that the arrests are a part of a counterterror operation in opposition to Hamas within the West Financial institution.

There are additionally about 700 individuals lacking from Gaza who’re believed to be in Israeli prisons, however info on their whereabouts is murky, mentioned Tala Nasir, a spokeswoman for Addameer. It was not clear what number of of these individuals, if any, have been ladies or minors. The Israeli navy has mentioned that it has apprehended 300 individuals in Gaza through the floor invasion that it claimed have been linked to armed Palestinian teams, and that they “have been introduced into Israeli territory for additional interrogations.”

Of the roughly 240 Israeli hostages taken to Gaza by Hamas and different armed teams, 33 are minors, the youngest of whom is 9 months previous, in accordance with the Israeli authorities. At the very least 62 are ladies, in accordance with a corporation fashioned by the hostages’ households. It was not clear what number of, if any, of the ladies have been troopers.

As of this week, the entire variety of what Addameer calls Palestinian political prisoners in Israel — together with individuals from Gaza, the West Financial institution and Israel — was 7,000, up from about 5,000 earlier than Oct. 7, in accordance with Addameer. That features greater than 2,000 individuals held in “administrative detention,” which means they’re being held indefinitely with out expenses, it mentioned.

Ms. Nasir mentioned that her group defines that class as Palestinians arrested for offenses which are associated to political exercise and free speech moderately than crimes like medication or violence. She added that Addameer had acquired many studies in current weeks of individuals arrested on expenses of incitement for his or her social media posts in Israel and the West Financial institution. Earlier this month, the Knesset handed an modification to a counterterrorism legislation that criminalized the “consumption of terrorist supplies.”

Adalah, the Authorized Heart for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, mentioned that it was monitoring 121 circumstances of arrests and detentions linked to social media posts, some which “merely contained expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian individuals in Gaza, and even verses shared from the Quran.”

Rights teams have lengthy warned that Palestinian detainees are held with out due course of and face abuse and even torture. Army Courtroom Watch, a nonprofit authorized group, mentioned final yr that of the 100 Palestinian kids detained by Israeli forces that it had interviewed, 74 p.c reported bodily abuse, and 42 p.c mentioned they have been put in solitary confinement.

The ladies in Israeli detention embrace Ahed Tamimi, 22, a high-profile determine within the West Financial institution who was sentenced to jail in 2018 for slapping an Israeli soldier. Israeli officers accused her of her posting hate speech on-line; her household mentioned the put up was not hers.

Hiba Yazbek and Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.