Government holds late-night telephone vote to approve last-minute changes to list of Palestinian prisoners due for release

The government held an “urgent” telephone vote a short while ago, Hebrew media reports, to approve last-minute changes to the list of Palestinian prisoners due to be released in exchange for the hostages in just a few hours.

Two prisoners on the list were found to be ineligible for release — due to one of them already having been released and the other having ties to Fatah rather than Hamas. Instead, the ministers were asked to approve adding two Hamas-affiliated prisoners in their place, neither of whom is serving a life sentence.

Other changes were also made to the list of Gazans arrested since October 7 who did not take part in the attack and are thus eligible for release, the report says, including removing seven minors from the list and replacing them with seven other Gazans, including two women.