Israel deported Palestinian prisoners to Egypt. Some Israelis query the apply

TEL AVIV, Israel — In alternate for Hamas releasing its ultimate group of Israeli hostages, Israel launched practically 2,000 Palestinians from jail in October.

A lot of the Palestinians launched by Israel had been arrested in Gaza on suspicion of participating in hostilities throughout the warfare and held with out cost, they usually have been despatched again to the territory. However 250 of them have been serving lengthy sentences for lethal assaults in opposition to Israelis.

For 154 of these prisoners, their freedom got here with a significant situation: They have been despatched into exile, by no means to return to their properties within the Palestinian territories. They have been despatched to Cairo, with their ultimate vacation spot nonetheless undetermined.

Israeli safety specialists say the deportation coverage is meant to stop launched prisoners from returning to militant exercise and posing a future menace to Israelis. However previous circumstances recommend the coverage of deporting Palestinian prisoners overseas can have unintended, long-term penalties for Israeli safety.

Hamas leaders behind the Oct. 7 assault have been launched prisoners

Then-head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas motion within the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, spoke throughout a protest held to mark Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, in Gaza Metropolis on April 14, 2023. Israeli forces killed Sinwar in October 2024.

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs

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Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs

Two prisoners launched by Israel in a 2011 prisoner-hostage swap with Hamas ended up taking management roles with the militant group after being launched, in accordance with Israel’s Shin Guess home intelligence company.

Zaher Jabarin, deported to Turkey, started overseeing Hamas’ monetary operations, the Shin Guess mentioned in a report. One other, Yahya Sinwar, grew to become the Hamas chief in Gaza who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel — when 1,144 Israelis have been killed, in accordance with Israeli authorities figures, sparking the Gaza warfare.

One other notable case is Saleh al-Arouri, a founding commander of Hamas’ army wing. He was launched from Israeli jail and deported in 2010. Settling first in Syria and later transferring between Turkey, Lebanon and Qatar, he’s extensively credited with constructing Hamas’ West Financial institution militant networks and serving to plan the Oct. 7 assault.

A mastermind of Hamas’ hostage-taking technique is now free

Among the many prisoners launched in October and deported are these liable for among the most infamous assaults in opposition to Israelis in latest many years.

One is Mahmoud Issa, who based a Hamas unit many years in the past that was liable for abducting Israeli troopers to make use of them as bargaining chips for pushing Israel to launch Palestinian prisoners. He was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment, convicted for abducting and killing an Israeli police officer.

One other is Imad Qawasmeh, a Hamas operative despatched overseas within the latest deal, who was incarcerated for greater than 20 years in reference to a pair of suicide bombings that killed 16 Israelis within the southern metropolis of Beersheba in 2004.

The Israeli debate about deporting Palestinian prisoners

Some Israeli safety analysts say deporting high-risk prisoners overseas is healthier than permitting them to return to their households and communities within the Palestinian territories. They argue that the space reduces the launched prisoners’ capability to renew operational roles in militant teams like Hamas.

Deportation also can lower the affect they’ve on Palestinian communities within the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and Gaza, the place they may in any other case encourage additional violence towards Israel, mentioned Michael Milshtein, an Israeli skilled in Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv College and former Israeli army intelligence officer.

“It can be better than having them here, mainly when it comes to those who are very experienced, admired and will contribute significantly to the terror infrastructure,” mentioned Kobi Michaeli, an Israeli safety skilled with the Institute for Nationwide Safety Research and the Misgav Institute assume tanks.

The impact of deportation, from a Palestinian perspective

Palestinian kin have a look at a cellphone to verify on a prisoner who was deported and couldn’t be reunited with them on the Ramallah Cultural Palace on Oct. 13, in Ramallah, West Financial institution. Israel launched practically 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in alternate for the return for Israeli hostages as a part of a ceasefire take care of Hamas.

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Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Getty Photographs

Palestinian human rights advocates criticize the deportations, which prisoners agreed to beneath circumstances of imprisonment, as forcible displacement. Israeli analysts defend the apply, saying prisoners have been supplied a selection to stay incarcerated or be freed and deported.

The vast majority of Palestinian prisoners’ shut kin have been barred by Israeli authorities from touring overseas to greet their deported kin after the newest prisoner launch, in accordance with Qadura Fares, a veteran Palestinian prisoner advocate and the previous head of prisoner affairs for the Palestinian Authority. Fares says the households have been advised the restriction was for safety causes.

Fares himself was imprisoned in Israel in 1981, charged with being a part of a militant squad that obtained weapons and carried out assaults, and was launched to the West Financial institution in 1994 as a part of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

“Every prisoner dreams of being free in his own environment, in his town or village, among his family and friends, where people know him and where he has personal and social status,” Fares advised NPR. “Israel thinks that it can distance these people from their homeland in order to stop them from influencing their societies, but it is a mistake. If a prisoner is released to a normal and familiar environment, he adapts and lives a normal life.”

However Israel’s Shin Guess home intelligence company suggests in any other case. A report by the Israeli parliament’s analysis arm, The Knesset Analysis and Info Middle, cites Shin Guess figures that about 75% of the Palestinian prisoners launched within the 2011 prisoner-hostage deal returned to militant exercise. The figures don’t account for prisoners who’re not alive.

When requested whether or not deportation may function a type of punishment, Michaeli dismissed the concept: “I think that for these people to live in Doha or in Istanbul under the hospitality of the [Qataris] and the Turks, is not a punishment.”

The Shin Guess declined NPR’s request for touch upon Israel’s deportation coverage.

The impression of Israel’s latest strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar

If launched prisoners find yourself in cities like Qatar’s capital of Doha, or Istanbul and Ankara in Turkey, they could possibly be in “safe zones” enabling launched prisoners to function extra freely and play a future position in teams like Hamas, Michaeli defined.

“They have a sort of immunity, because Israel will not target them, at least not under the current circumstances,” Michaeli mentioned.

Israel is extensively believed to be behind one assassination of a Hamas determine in a Gulf state previously, however its strike in September on Hamas leaders in Qatar angered the U.S. and “was a lesson for Israel: You cannot really assassinate anyone in Hamas any place you want, because there is a price for moves like that,” mentioned Milshtein.

Israel may pursue these people overseas at a later date, however the large-scale launch of high-profile prisoners will place a heavy burden on Israel’s intelligence businesses, requiring ongoing surveillance to stop future assaults, writes Israeli analyst Yoni Ben Menachem of the Jerusalem Middle for Public Affairs, a conservative Israeli assume tank.

In the meantime, the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo advised NPR that the 154 prisoners deported final month have been initially put up in Renaissance Cairo Mirage Metropolis Resort, a high-end Marriott resort. However after the Every day Mail reported on their location, dubbing it “Hotel Hamas,” they have been transferred to a different resort alongside the Gulf of Suez within the metropolis of Ain Sokhna, about an hour and a half outdoors of Cairo, the embassy mentioned.

Israel and Egypt haven’t commented on their final vacation spot.

Nuha Musleh in Ramallah, West Financial institution, Ahmad Abuhamda in Cairo and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this story.