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According to the terms of the agreement, Israel would free more than 1,000 Palestinian inmates during the 42-day initial cease-fire, starting with at least 90 on Sunday in return for three Israeli hostages that Hamas is holding in Gaza.
According to Israelis, a large number of the inmates are murderers and terrorists. Many Palestinians contend that the Israeli military court system unfairly imprisoned others, and they view the militants who are now in prison as liberation fighters against Israeli tyranny.
According to the Israeli Justice Ministry, these are some of the most well-known Palestinian inmates who will be freed under the cease-fire.
Zakaria Zubeidi
Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, has been a theater director, a militant, and an escaped prisoner whose escape astounded both Israelis and Palestinians. He gained notoriety as a militant leader during the Second Intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s, when Palestinian militants carried out deadly attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings that targeted civilian thoroughfares. Israel responded by reoccupying major Palestinian cities amid street battles, with some of the most intense fighting occurring in his hometown of Jenin. He went on to become a top commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed militia loosely associated with the secular Fatah party, the dominant Palestinian political faction in the West Bank.
Mr. Zubeidi worked in the hardscrabble Jenin refugee camp at a theater following the rebellion. Israel detained him once more in 2019 on suspicion of returning to militancy.
Two years later, Mr. Zubeidi and five other Palestinian inmates broke into one of Israel’s maximum-security prisons by crawling through an underground tunnel for over thirty-two yards. The security breach pleased Palestinians and scared Israelis, even though they were ultimately recovered.
In September, Mr. Zubeidi’s son, Muhammad, was murdered by an Israeli drone attack. The son was labeled a “significant terrorist” by the Israeli military, which also claimed that he had participated in firing at Israeli forces.
