GAZA, October 22, 2011 (WAFA) – A total of 530 Palestinian prisoners serving single or multiple life terms remain in Israeli jails after the latest swap, according to a report published on Saturday.
The report, prepared by Abdul Nasser Ferwaneh, a researcher specialized in prisoners’ affairs, said that the swap between Israel and Hamas, in which Israel has released 477 prisoners on Tuesday with a promise to release 550 more in two months, was number 38 in Arab and Palestinian swaps with Israel since 1948.
However, he said, this was the first to be done on Palestinian land in recent history.
The report said 176 prisoners who have been in jail since before the 1993 signing of the Oslo accords were released in the Tuesday swap, including Muhammad Salameh Abu Khousa, who has been in prison since June 1976.
The list includes as well four prisoners who spent more than 31 years in jail and they include Nael and Fakhri Barghouti, in prison since 1978, Akram Mansour and Fouad Razem, the longest serving prisoner from Jerusalem. It also includes the oldest prisoner, 82-year-old Sami Younis, from the village of Arra, inside Israel, who has been in jail since January 1983.
The report said 95 released prisoners have served more than 20 years in prison, including 27 who were incarcerated for over 25 years.
It said the swap excluded Karim Younis, also from the village of Arra, who has been in prison since January 1983, making him the longest serving Palestinian in Israeli jails.
