EXPLANER
Hamas and Israel have both said they will release the women and children.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day pause in fighting, which includes an exchange of some of the prisoners captured in the October 7 Hamas attack for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Here is what we know about captives and prisoners:
How many captives and prisoners are released?
More than 200 prisoners were taken prisoner by Hamas during its October 7 attack. Among them, around fifty will be released as part of the agreement reached on Wednesday. Reuters reported that a senior U.S. official spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity, saying the actual number of captives released was expected to be more than 50.
In the days before the agreement, Hamas had released four captives. Israel rescued a soldier who had been kidnapped and said it had found the bodies of two other captives.
The truce provides for the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Around 5,200 Palestinians were in Israeli prisons before October 7. After the violence broke out on October 7, 3,000 more were arrested, including 145 children and 95 women.
What do we know about the release of captives?
- The 50 captives released over the four days will be civilian women and children, according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
- At least half of all captives held by Hamas have foreign nationality or dual nationality from around 40 countries, including the United States, Thailand, the United Kingdom, France, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Portugal, according to the Israeli government.
- The senior US official said that among the captives who will be released, three are US citizens.
- These include two women and a three-year-old girl whose parents were killed in the initial Hamas attack. The official did not provide information on which captives of other nationalities are expected to be released.
- French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Wednesday that France hoped its eight citizens believed to be captive would be among the released group.
- According to Hamas, the captives are being held in “safe places and tunnels” in Gaza.
- Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was released by Hamas earlier, reported that the captives slept on mattresses on the tunnel floors and received medical care.
- The Israeli military claimed to have evidence that some prisoners were being held in or under hospitals. The army also said Sunday that Noa Marciano, a soldier whose body was found, was killed by Hamas at al-Shifa hospital. Hamas said she died in an Israeli airstrike.
- On October 20, Hamas released captives Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17. They released Israeli women Nurit Cooper, 79, and Lifshitz on October 23.
- The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group announced Tuesday the death of an Israeli prisoner. The captives’ families pressured the Israeli government to release the captives.
What do we know about the release of prisoners in Israel?
- Hamas said Israel had agreed to release 150 prisoners, while the Israeli Justice Ministry presented a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners eligible for release.
- Thirty-three adult women are on the list and the majority of the remaining names on the list are teenagers.
- The prisoners on the Israeli list were arrested between 2021 and 2023, with most of them accused of threatening security, illegally entering Israel without a permit and violent crimes.
- Thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons are under threat of administrative detention, meaning they are held behind bars indefinitely without being tried or charged.
- Save the Children reported in July that children detained in Israel were being abused. The nature of abuse ranges from sexual violence to physical and psychological violence. The report adds that some are deprived of food, water and sleep.
- “The main crime alleged for these detentions is stone throwing, which can result in a 20-year prison sentence for Palestinian children,” the report said.