Israel publishes list of 250 Palestinian prisoners it will release; Islamic Jihad commander behind 3 suicide bombings to go free

Israel has published the full list of 250 Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences slated for release as part of the hostage-ceasefire agreement.

The list, published by the Justice Ministry, comes the morning after the cabinet approved the US-backed deal, aimed at returning the remaining hostages and permanently ending the Gaza war.

Of the 250 prisoners, 15 will be freed to East Jerusalem, 100 to the West Bank and 135 are slated for deportation.

Some last-minute changes to the list were approved this morning, after negotiators agreed to swap 11 Fatah-affiliated prisoners with Hamas-affiliated ones.

Although Hamas demanded the release of the prominent Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, in jail for planning deadly terror attacks during the Second Intifada, he is not included on the published list.

Popular Front leader Ahmad Sa’adat, as well as senior Hamas figures Ibrahim Hamed and Hassan Salameh, are also not slated for release, despite reported pressure from Hamas negotiators.

In addition to the security prisoners, another 1,700 Gazan detainees arrested after, but not involved in the Hamas-led October 7, attack, will be freed back to the Strip or exiled abroad.

The prisoners are only expected to go free after a 72-hour period in which all hostages, living and dead, are to be released.

Among those whose names appear on the list for release is Iyad Abu al-Rub, commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Jenin area of the West Bank. He is responsible for orchestrating and overseeing a number of terror attacks, including a suicide bombing in Shadmot Mechola in June 2003, a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in February 2004 and a suicide bombing in Hadera in 2005. In total, 13 people were killed across the three attacks.

Also due to be released are Muhammad Zakarneh, a Fatah operative who planned the 2009 attack in which taxi driver Grigory Raginovich was murdered, and Muhammad Abu al-Rub, who in 2017 carried out a stabbing attack that killed Reuven Shmerling.

In addition, Mahmoud Qawasmeh, a senior Hamas member who was released in the Shalit deal, deported to Gaza, and later re-arrested during the war in Gaza in 2024, will also be released.