At home in the occupied East Jerusalem town of Sur Baher, Sameera Dwayyat is gripped by anxiety and apprehension.
The name of her daughter, Shorouq, who is currently serving the longest sentence of any Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails, is on the list of prisoners to be released in the coming days in exchange for 50 Israeli captives held in Gaza by Hamas. .
“I’m so nervous,” Sameera, also known as Imm Ibrahim, told Tel Aviv Tribune. “We have not heard any official confirmation regarding the names (which will be released) from any official party, and neither the Red Cross nor the Palestinian Prisoners Club have contacted us.”
After six weeks of fighting, Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day truce that begins Thursday.
As part of the truce, Israel agreed to release 150 Palestinian women and children from its prisons, in exchange for Hamas’ release of 50 Israeli women and children out of 237 captives kidnapped since October 7.
Hundreds of trucks carrying vital humanitarian aid and fuel will also be allowed into Gaza.
Shorouq Dwayyat, currently serving her ninth year of a 16-year prison sentence, is one of several prisoners who activists say have been unfairly tried and convicted on unjust or trumped-up charges . She was also fined 80,000 shekels ($21,500).
She was just 18 years old when Israeli forces arrested her as she walked home on October 7, 2015, after shooting her four times, leaving her in critical condition.
She was accused of trying to stab an Israeli settler with a knife, but her family strongly denies the accusations.
“It is impossible for me to believe the Israeli story that my daughter stabbed a settler,” Salah Dwayyat, her father, told Tel Aviv Tribune at the time. “Shorouq is delicate and cannot harm an animal.”
Palestinian witnesses said an Israeli settler attempted to remove her hijab as she walked past, in a deliberate act of provocation. She pushed back and Israeli forces fired four bullets into her body, leaving her bleeding on the ground for half an hour before arresting her.
Shorouq was treated at Jerusalem’s Ein Karem/Hadassah Hospital, undergoing skin grafts and several operations. She had just started her first semester at Bethlehem University as a geography and history student, after earning a 90 percent average in high school.
“She was the one who cheered me up every time I visited her at Damon Prison in Haifa,” her mother said. “I had no hope that she would be released early, to the point where she had stopped asking me if I thought there was a chance of that happening. »
The fifth child out of seven, Shorouq asked her questions about her brothers and sisters, two of whom married during the years she spent in prison, as well as the nieces and nephews she was unable to meet.
“This year – call it a mother’s intuition – I had a feeling she would be free,” Sameera said. “I told her on my last visit that I could see her outside the front door of our house.”
“I hope it’s true,” she added, her voice catching. “I hope she can come home.”
“They wanted revenge on my family”
In the town of Sila al-Harthiya in the northern occupied West Bank, Muntaser Jaradat said he could not wait for his mother, Awatif, to be released from Damon prison in northern Palestine.
The 33-year-old himself was released from the notorious Naqab prison on November 1, but two other brothers remain detained in other prisons.
Awatif Jaradat, 50, was arrested in December 2021 after Israeli forces arrested her youngest son, Ghaith, who was 18 at the time. Another son, Omar, 21, was also arrested – as was Muntaser himself two months later.
Israeli forces had accused Ghaith of carrying out an attack that resulted in the death of an Israeli settler and the injury of two others. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years.
“Israel accused my mother of inciting hatred after she spoke to the media saying she was proud of her sons’ resistance to the occupation,” Muntaser said. “They wanted a long sentence for her, from nine to 15 years in prison. »
“They just wanted revenge on our family,” he said.
The mother of nine is known for her strong personality, especially in the face of adversity, her son said. Muntaser said she served as a medical escort for a fellow detainee, Fatima Shaheen, who was arrested last April after Israeli forces shot her, causing injuries that left her paralyzed. Shaheen is also on the list of prisoners scheduled for release.
Awatif was allowed to accompany Shaheen to Ramleh Prison for medical treatment, but was not allowed to stay with her. Instead, she was placed in solitary confinement in Ramleh for three months, without communication with the outside world, before being returned to Damon.
“The last two years have been difficult for my family, who had to travel to four different prisons to see me in Naqab, Ghaith in Nafha, Omar in Gilboa and my mother in Damon,” Muntaser said. “We haven’t heard from Omar for two months.”
He described how Palestinian prisoners were subjected to torture following the Hamas attack on Israeli army outposts and towns outside the Gaza Strip on October 7.
“They beat us so badly that the ground was stained with blood,” he said. “It was like being in Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib prison. They humiliated us and trampled us with their boots. They also cut off the water and electricity and threw away our belongings. »
In Bethlehem, Amna Salameh is optimistic about the return of her youngest daughter, Maysoon Mousa, after nearly nine years in prison. Maysoon was arrested in 2015 when she was 22 and sentenced to 15 years in prison after being accused of stabbing a soldier.
“We are happy to hear the news,” she said. “I last saw Maysoon two months ago, but since October 7 we have not been allowed any visits and we have heard that the prisoners are being mistreated. We hope that all prisoners will be released and that the suffering of our people in Gaza will end. »