Several senior Hamas leaders from the West Bank and several prisoners who were rearrested after being released in the Gilad Schalit deal will be among the hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners to be released on Saturday and all be given shirts that say: "I will pursue my enemies and catch them," according to KAN.
The Israeli hostages being released in exchange for the Palestinian prisoners are Avera Mengistu, Eliya Cohen, Hisham al-Sayed, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, and Tal Shoham.
החולצות שהמחבלים ישתחררו איתן הפעם: "ארדוף אויבי ואשיגם"@Roi_Yanovsky pic.twitter.com/Dk8qMTEyIf
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 22, 2025
The last prisoner release last week, the IPS gave those they released sweatshirts with the caption: "We won't forget nor forgive."
Among those who will be released on Saturday are 41 prisoners rearrested after being freed in the Gilad Schalit deal, 50 who were supposed to be serving life sentences, and 60 that sentenced to long prison terms, according to Army Radio. Initially, 47 of the reimprisoned from the Schalit deal were supposed to be released, but six of them had refused to be deported abroad, so they will remain in prison and others will be released in their place, according to Army Radio.
In exchange, Israel will release senior Hamas officials such as Salama Qatawi. Another terrorist to be released is Abd al-Nasser Issa, a student of Hamas bombmaker and engineer Yahya Ayash, who was credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombings used by Palestinian terrorists. Issa himself was responsible for two suicide bombings, according to KAN.
Othman Bilal, another terrorist to be released, was serving 27 life sentences for a series of terrorist attacks that led to the murder and injury of dozens of Israelis, the KAN report added.
Another terrorist to be released is Omar al-Zaban, who is responsible for terror attacks that led to 27 Israelis dead.
Hamas earlier claimed that Israel did not hand over the list of security prisoners to be released, only for Army Radio to report shortly after that Israel did release the list of hundreds of prisoners to be freed. KAN reports about 602 prisoners to be released on Saturday, 445 of whom were arrested in Gaza during the war.
Released terrorists also include those rearrested after being freed in Schalit deal
For some terrorists, this will not be the first time they have been released in a prisoner-hostage exchange, as a few dozen of them were released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Schalit deal and then were later rearrested. Others include veteran prisoners who were imprisoned for decades.
One of them is Nael al-Barghouti, who according to KAN is the longest-serving inmate in an Israeli prison, who was convicted in the 1970s for murdering an Israeli officer while he was active in Fatah and later joined the ranks of Hamas.
Another is Samer Al-Makhrom, who was convicted of murdering an Israeli citizen four decades ago.