Hundreds of Palestinians freed from Israeli jails after weeklong hold up
The Cradle | February 27, 2025
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners were let out from Israel’s prisons early on 27 February in exchange for the handover of the bodies of four Israeli captives who were held in Gaza, as part of the seventh and final round of exchanges for phase one of the ceasefire.
The bodies of the four Israeli captives were handed over silently and not covered by the media, as Tel Aviv had demanded that Hamas refrain from holding its customary captive release ceremony.
Five hundred and ninety-six Palestinian prisoners were released overnight out of the 642 detainees whose release was held up by Israel last weekend. There are 46 other prisoners who are expected to be released in the coming hours, which include women and children.
Among the released were those with high sentences and life sentences. The prisoners were received in the occupied West Bank and southern Gaza’s city of Khan Yunis. Nearly 100 have been exiled to Egypt.
The world’s longest-serving political prisoner, Nael al-Barghouti, referred to as the “dean” of Palestinian detainees, was among those released and exiled to Egypt.
He spent 45 years in Israeli custody, including 34 consecutive years. He was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit deal that saw 1,000 prisoners, including late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, get released. However, he was rearrested in 2014 and slapped with a renewed life sentence.
US envoy to the region, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday to negotiate an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
According to reports, Israel is looking to violate the deal by maintaining its military presence along the Philadelphi corridor on southern Gaza’s border with Egypt. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that the corridor will remain “a buffer zone just as the case is in Lebanon and Syria.” Tel Aviv is also reportedly planning for a resumption of its brutal war against Gaza after having imposed new conditions, including the full disarmament of Hamas and the release of all remaining captives in a single swap.
According to a report by Haaretz, “as far as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is concerned, there is no second stage” of the deal.
The report says Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer recently told Witkoff that Netanyahu’s plan is to secure the release of all captives in a single stage, and that Hamas will receive prisoners in exchange. Otherwise, “Israel will return to intense warfare” and reimplement a “version” of the Generals’ Plan – which saw the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from north Gaza, the killing of thousands, and the destruction of the Gaza health sector.
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The lies about the 1967 war are still more powerful than the truth
By Alan Hart | June 4, 2012
In retrospect it can be seen that the 1967 war, the Six Days War, was the turning point in the relationship between the Zionist state of Israel and the Jews of the world (the majority of Jews who prefer to live not in Israel but as citizens of many other nations). Until the 1967 war, and with the exception of a minority of who were politically active, most non-Israeli Jews did not have – how can I put it? – a great empathy with Zionism’s child. Israel was there and, in the sub-consciousness, a refuge of last resort; but the Jewish nationalism it represented had not generated the overtly enthusiastic support of the Jews of the world. The Jews of Israel were in their chosen place and the Jews of the world were in their chosen places. There was not, so to speak, a great feeling of togetherness. At a point David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, was so disillusioned by the indifference of world Jewry that he went public with his criticism – not enough Jews were coming to live in Israel.
So how and why did the 1967 war transform the relationship between the Jews of the world and Israel? … continue
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