Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today’s episode, a special Friday Focus on the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

Tomorrow, another four hostages are set to be released from Gaza — presumably women and presumably alive. Alongside the Israelis’ release, however, up to 200 Palestinian prisoners could be set free from jail in Israel, according to the current formula of 30 Palestinian prisoners for every civilian and 50 for every female soldier.

More from The Daily Briefing

Rettig Gur takes on this complicated and emotional subject, looking at the history of terrorist hostage-taking and previous so-called exchanges of abductees for Palestinian prisoners — including those serving multiple life sentences.

We speak about the most memorable exchange, which came in 2011 when captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was released from Gaza and 1,027 security prisoners were freed from Israeli prisons. Rettig Gur postulates that the blueprint for that abduction actually came much earlier.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Convicted terrorists to be released are ‘an open wound’ for victims’ families

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