Israel is expected to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners during the initial 42 days of the ceasefire, under the terms of the deal, starting with at least 90 on Sunday in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Israelis say many of the prisoners are terrorists and murderers. Many Palestinians view the imprisoned activists as freedom fighters against Israeli rule, and argue that others were imprisoned by an unjust Israeli military justice system.
Here are several of the most important Palestinian prisoners expected to be released as part of the ceasefire, according to the Israeli Justice Ministry.
Zakaria Zubeidi
For the past two decades, Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, has been an activist, theater director and escaped prisoner whose escape stunned Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr. Zubeidi rose to prominence as a militant leader during the Second Intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s, during which Palestinian militants carried out deadly attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings targeting civil ways.
Israel responded by reoccupying major Palestinian towns amid street fighting. Some of the heaviest fighting took place in the Palestinian city of Jenin, Mr. Zubeidi’s hometown. He later became a top commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed militia loosely linked to the secular Fatah party, the dominant Palestinian political faction in the West Bank.
After the uprising, Mr. Zubeidi worked in a theater inside Jenin refugee camp. In 2019, Israel arrested him again on charges of returning to activism.
Two years later, Mr. Zubeidi and five other Palestinian prisoners performed a jailbreak by crawling nearly 32 meters through an underground tunnel outside one of Israel’s maximum security prisons. Although they were later recaptured, the security lapse shook the Israelis and enthused the Palestinians.
An Israeli drone strike killed Mr. Zubeidi’s son, Mohammad, in September. The Israeli military called the son a “significant terrorist” and said he had been involved in shootings against Israeli troops.
Wissam Abbasi, Mohammad Odeh and Wael Qassim
Wissam Abbasi, 48, Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qassim, 54, were imprisoned in 2002 for leading Hamas attacks against Israelis during the Second Intifada. According to the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the three men were sentenced to life in prison for murder and a series of other crimes.
According to contemporary Israeli media, these men were among several people convicted of being involved in a Hamas cell in Jerusalem which was responsible for a series of bombings that killed more than 30 Israelis in areas populated by civilians.
The attacks included a Hamas bombing of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that killed nine peopleincluding four American citizens, according to Israeli authorities.
Mr. Odeh, who worked as a painter at the university, planted the bomb in a cafeteria and covered it with newspaper, The New York Times reported at the timeciting Israeli officials. When he left, he detonated the explosive remotely with a cell phone, officials said.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the men will not be allowed to return to their homes in Jerusalem, according to the Israeli Justice Ministry. They will be forced to live in exile, although it is unclear where they will be allowed to go.
Khalida Jarrar
One of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners expected to be released as early as Sunday is Khalida Jarrar, 62, leader of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (FLP).
Ms. Jarrar, a prominent activist for the rights of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, was elected to the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 elections.
The United States and the European Union consider the Popular Front a terrorist organization. The group became famous in the late 1960s for a series of hijackingsas well as other attacks, notably during the Second Intifada.
Ghassan Jarrar, her husband, said in a telephone interview that Israeli authorities had not allowed him to visit his wife since his arrest in December 2023. He was awaiting any news of her condition thanks to rare visits from his lawyer , he said.
Ms. Jarrar has spent much of the past decade in Israeli prisons, although she has not been convicted of direct involvement in the Popular Front’s military activities. In 2015, she was sentenced to 15 months for incitement and membership in a prohibited organization.
In recent years, Israel has mostly detained Ms. Jarrar without formal charges. Rights groups call the practice a serious violation of due process, while Israel says it is sometimes necessary to protect sensitive information.
In 2021, her daughter Suha died while Ms. Jarrar was detained in an Israeli prison. Israel rejected a request to grant him compassionate leave to attend the funeral.
