(News report) RAMALLAH, Jan 18 (KUNA) -- Palestinians are gearing themselves up for receiving hundreds of prisoners to be set free from Israeli occupation prisons in a prisoner swap deal as part of a recently concluded Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The deal was announced by Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman on Wednesday, who announced the joint mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. had secured a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap deal.
The Gaza ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will start at 8:30 am local time in Gaza on Sunday, said the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday.
Some 70 prisoner exchange deals have been concluded between Palestinians and Israeli occupying forces since 1948, the last of which took place in November 2023 when 240 Palestinians prisoners, including 71 women and 159 children, were freed in exchange for 50 Israeli prisoners.
Palestinians prisoners' groups said in a recent joint press release that prisoner swap deals between Arabs and Israeli occupation had started following the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), involving Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and finally Palestinian factions.
There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli occupation prisons, not including those detained from Gaza during the last 15 months of conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society.
The first prisoner exchange took place between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israeli occupation in 1968 after Palestinian fighters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had hijacked an Israeli occupation aircraft. Some 37 Palestinian prisoners were set free in return for the releasing of the hijacked plane's passengers.
In 1971, a prisoner swap was concluded between Fatah Movement and Israeli occupation forces, when the first Palestinian prisoner, who was detained in 1965, was released.
In 1979, the PLO freed an Israeli occupation prisoner, while 76 Palestinians, including 12 females, belonging to all Palestinian resistance factions, were released.
As many as 4,700 Palestinian prisoners were swapped for six Israeli occupation soldiers in a new prisoner swap deal that was agreed between Fatah and Israeli occupation in 1983.
In a prisoner exchange operation called (Al-Jaleel Operation) in 1985, Israeli occupying forces released 1,155 Palestinians in return for three Israeli occupation soldiers, followed by another deal in 2009, where 20 Palestinians were freed while information was given about Gilad Shalit, who was held in captivity in the Gaza Strip in 2006.
Some 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including 33 females, were exchanged in 2011 for Shalit, who was captured by Hamas Movement in a 2006 cross-border raid and held for five years.
The current exchange is also similar in scope to the most famous prisoner swap, which involved the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
More than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners are also held under administrative detention, meaning that they are held without trial or charge.
Under the deal, the three-stage ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase when prisoners held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners and detainees jailed in Israeli occupation prisons.
The Israeli occupation is supposed to release almost 2,000 Palestinians from its jails. They include 737 male, female and teen-aged prisoners.
Some 123 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli bombardments since the accord was announced on Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces began their aggression on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 46,000 people, injuring over 100,000 others and displacing most of the enclave's population of 2.3 million. (end) nq.mt