The Israel Prison Service on Friday started processing the 39 Palestinian security prisoners slated for release later in the afternoon as part of a hostage deal with Hamas that will see 13 Israelis released from Gaza, where they have been held since October 7.
According to reports, the Prison Service received the names of the 39 prisoners who will be released during the first day of the deal, and shortly before noon they were transferred to Ofer Prison in the West Bank, where they were to undergo a Red Cross health examination.
They will then be transferred to the Beitunia checkpoint close to Ramallah, and only once the 13 hostages are back inside Israel and correctly identified will they be released to their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In total, 50 Israeli hostages will be released over a four-day pause in fighting in exchange for 150 security prisoners. The deal is the first one to have been made following October 7, when Hamas burst into southern Israel, killed at least 1,200 people and seized some 240 hostages.
Another 150 prisoners could be released after the initial four days, with Israel agreeing to an additional day of truce for every ten additional hostages released by Hamas.
While the names of the 39 Palestinian prisoners set to be released on Friday have not yet been made public, an unnamed Palestinian source confirmed that the group comprises 24 women and 15 minors, the youngest of whom was said to be 14 years old.
The group was said to include inmates who committed stabbing attacks against Israelis, although nobody on the list of 300 prisoners who could potentially be released has been convicted of murder.
Of the 300 prisoners, 74 are East Jerusalem residents, Ynet reported, while the majority are from Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank. A small number of prisoners are reportedly Gaza residents who crossed into Israel in recent years.
Many of the prisoners are affiliated with Hamas, Fatah, or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but some have no known affiliations with any groups.
According to CNN, the most common charges the prisoners were convicted for include stone-throwing and “harming regional security.”
Other charges include supporting terror organizations, illegal weapons charges and incitement, the report said.
One of the women slated for release is 16-year-old Nafoz Hamad, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison just two weeks ago after she was found guilty of stabbing her neighbor Moriah Cohen in the back in the contentious Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in December 2021.
The oldest individual expected to be released is 59-year-old Hanan Barghouti, who was convicted on charges of supporting terrorism.
Israel Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry arrived at Damon Prison on Friday morning ahead of the slated release.
“This is our mission, for the return home of the hostages, and we will do it to the best of our ability,” she told the prison staff. “We have long days ahead of us and we will be vigilant in order to fulfill our mission, in cooperation with all the security forces.”
On Thursday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir held an assessment with top commanders from the police and prison services in order to prepare for any unrest caused by the prisoner releases.
He instructed Perry to quash any attempts to celebrate prisoner releases within incarceration facilities and told Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai to use “an iron first” against attempts to celebrate the release or to support terrorism.
Shabtai was also instructed to increase police presence in the hometowns of the released prisoners that fall inside the Green Line.
In particular, Ben Gvir instructed Shabtai to pay close attention to celebrations in East Jerusalem, where there is a substantial police presence.
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.