RAMALLAH, January, 18, 2024 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reviewed the most prominent prisoner exchange operations with the Israeli occupation, after the occupation government approved the ceasefire agreement tonight in the Gaza Strip.
They affirmed that the exchange operations with the Israeli occupation began in the Arab world after the Nakba of Palestine in 1948, before the Palestinian organizations and factions began, and many Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Jordanian and Lebanese exchange operations took place.
The last prisoner exchange operation was the release batches in November 2023, where 240 prisoners were released, including 71 female prisoners and 169 children.
The number of documented exchanges and deals reached 40, while the most prominent Palestinian exchanges are as follows:
- 7/23/1968: The first exchange took place between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli occupation government, after Palestinian fighters belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine succeeded in hijacking an Israeli plane belonging to El Al. The deal was concluded with the occupation through the International Red Cross, and the passengers were released in exchange for (37) Palestinian prisoners with long sentences, including Palestinian prisoners who had been captured before 1967.
- 1/28/1971: An operation took place between the Palestinian National Liberation Movement "Fatah" and the Israeli occupation government, and it was a prisoner-for-prisoner exchange, whereby the occupation released the prisoner Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi in exchange for the release of the Israeli soldier (Shmuel Fayez) who was kidnapped by Fatah in late 1969.
Hijazi was the first Palestinian prisoner in the contemporary Palestinian revolution after its launch on January 1, 1969. 1965, and was arrested on 18-1-1965, and sentenced to death at that time, but the sentence was not carried out, and the exchange operation was carried out in Ras al-Naqoura under the auspices of the Red Cross.
- 14-3-1979: Litani exchange operation or as it was called "Operation Seagull", where the Popular Front - General Command released an Israeli soldier that it had captured in the Litani operation, and in return Israel released 76 detainees from all factions of the Palestinian revolution who were in its prisons, including 12 female prisoners.
- 23-11-1983: Exchange operation between the occupation government and the Palestinian National Liberation Movement "Fatah", where Israel released all detainees from the Ansar prison in southern Lebanon, numbering (4700) Palestinian and Lebanese detainees, and 65 prisoners from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of six Israeli soldiers.
- 20-5-1985: An exchange operation with the Popular Front - General Command, which was called "Operation Galilee", and under which Israel released 1155 prisoners who were being held in its various prisons, including 883 prisoners who were being held in prisons established in the occupied Palestinian territories, 118 prisoners who were kidnapped from the Ansar prison in southern Lebanon during the 1983 exchange with the Fatah movement, and 154 prisoners who were transferred from the Ansar prison to the Atlit prison during the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, in exchange for three soldiers who were in the hands of the Popular Front.
- 10-1-2009: The Israeli occupation released twenty Palestinian female prisoners from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in exchange for obtaining information about the condition of the soldier "Shalit" who was captured by the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip on June 25, 2006, by obtaining a two-minute video tape showing "Shalit" in good health, and this "video tape" deal was considered part of the negotiations to complete the grand deal.
- 10-18-2011: The "Wafa al-Ahrar" exchange deal that took place between the Palestinian factions holding the Israeli soldier "Gilad Shalit" and the occupation government under Egyptian sponsorship, according to which "Shalit" was released, who had been held by the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip since June 26, 2006, in exchange for the release of 1027 male and female prisoners who were held in its prisons and detention centers, including 994 male prisoners and 33 female prisoners. According to it, 205 prisoners were deported to Gaza and abroad, including 163 prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem who were deported to Gaza, and 42 to abroad.
- 11-22-2023: A humanitarian truce agreement was announced in Gaza, where the agreement included the release of 50 hostages held by the factions, in exchange for the release of 150 over four days, where the truce was extended for three days, and the number of those released rose to 240, including 169 children, and 71 female prisoners.
Y.S
