Hamas completes the release of the twenty live hostages

BarcelonaThe Hamas jihadist militia completed the release of the twenty hostages still alive who had been held captive since October 7, 2023, shortly before 10:00 a.m. local time on Monday. In total, they have been held captive for 737 days. The first group to be handed over to the Red Cross consisted of seven people: Gali and Ziv Berman, ages 28 and 27; Matan Angrest, 22; Alon Ohel, 24; Omri Miran, 47; Eitan Mor, 25; and Guy Gilboa-Dallal, 23. The second release, of the remaining thirteen, took place shortly after US President Donald Trump landed at David Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Twenty-eight hostage bodies remain to be handed over to the Red Cross.

From now on, Israel must release 1,768 Palestinian prisoners. According to the agreement, the exchanges will take place "without public ceremony or media coverage" to avoid the show of force that Hamas used during the January truce. The first two buses carrying two groups of prisoners barely left Ofer Prison, where Israel had concentrated them for the exchange.

Of the 1,768 prisoners in Israel, 1,718 are Palestinians originally from the Gaza Strip, considered by the United Nations as "forcibly disappeared" during the recent months of conflict. In addition, 250 people come from the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them sentenced to life or long-term prison terms for attacks or alleged acts of violence against Israelis. According to the agreement, 154 will be deported to third countries, while 96 will return to the West Bank.

The Israeli authorities have transferred the prisoners destined for the exchange to two prisons: Ofer, near Ramallah, and Ketziot, in the Negev Desert. Despite hopes that this agreement marks a first step toward a sustained ceasefire, diplomatic sources note that previous attempts failed within a few weeks due to escalating tensions and a lack of mutual guarantees.

On the other hand, Israel has assumed that some of the bodies of the 28 deceased hostages will not be returned until they can be located, with the help of international teams. In turn, the Tel Aviv authorities will also release the bodies of 320 Palestinians they have in their possession, some of them for decades. If all goes as planned, after this first phase, the ceasefire will be consolidated. and a difficult negotiation full of uncertainty will begin, where both parties have no shared political horizon.

But despite the planned release of Palestinians in the coming hours, more than 20,000 remain in Israeli prisons, often under administrative detention, meaning without charge or trial. While there may be last-minute variations on the exact list, some of those impending release were held almost forty years ago, some since before the 1993 Oslo Accords.

The witness accounts of those released so far are shocking. They recount beatings, sleep deprivation, threats, and sexual abuse. Some avoid speaking out for fear of reprisals, but the stories are consistent: "It's a policy of humiliation," they say. "We are constantly reminded that we live under military rule." Indeed, since October 7, 2023, at least 17 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention centers. Authorities refer to the deaths as "natural deaths or suicides," but the families maintain they were victims of torture or medical negligence.