More than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, many held without charge for years within the Israeli prison system, are preparing for their first taste of freedom.

The exact number of prisoners being released in exchange for Israeli captives held in Gaza is unclear. The text of the ceasefire deal has not yet been released, and details reported on by media outlets describe different ratios for the captive-prisoner exchange, depending on whether the Palestinian prisoners are serving life sentences or not.

There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, not including those detained from Gaza during the last 15 months of conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees  Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The Israeli Ministry of Justice has released a list of 95 Palestinian women and children set to be released on Sunday if the implementation of the ceasefire deal begins, but beyond that, no names of the prisoners to be released are known.

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According to the deal’s outline, their release will not take place before Sunday at 4pm local time (14:00 GMT).

The list of names released by Israel shows that a vast majority were arrested after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, according to media reports. Fewer than 10 were arrested before the attacks.

Phase one

During the first stage of the three-phase agreement between Hamas and Israel, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be exchanged for 33 of the remaining Israeli captives, who are estimated to number about 100 in total.

Under the terms of the agreement, Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for Israeli captives according to ratios agreed upon by both sides and international mediators in Doha.

According to reports, 110 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life by Israeli courts will be exchanged for nine ill and wounded Israeli captives. In addition, Israeli men over the age of 50 will be released in exchange for Palestinian captives at a ratio of 1:3 for those sentenced for life sentences, and 1:27 for those serving other sentences.

Previous prisoner exchanges

Prisoners have long been used as currency in Israel’s dealings with Palestinian groups.

During stalled 2013 peace talks, Israel agreed to the staggered release of more than 100 Palestinians in a move intended to bolster negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time.

However, closer parallels to the current exchange can be found in the prisoner exchanges of 1983, when more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for six Israeli soldiers. Similarly, in 1985, some 1,150 Palestinian prisoners were swapped for three Israeli soldiers. The current exchange is also similar in scope to perhaps the most famous prisoner swap, which involved the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.

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Gilad Shalit exchange

1,027 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged in 2011 for Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in a 2006 cross-border raid and held for five years as negotiations for his release flailed.

In 2014, the Israeli government admitted that it had rearrested 51 of those prisoners following the abduction and eventual killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank. Explaining those arrests afterwards, Netanyahu made no attempt to link those arrested to the missing teenagers, saying only that their abduction sent “an important message” to Hamas.

High profile prisoners

Israeli Army Radio has reported that Khalida Jarrar, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the occupied West Bank, is among the Palestinian prisoners who will be released on Sunday.

Palestinians are also calling for the release of several other high-profile prisoners, including some who are serving life sentences.

Among them is one of the Palestinian group Fatah’s leading figures, Marwan Barghouti, whose long-awaited release has been repeatedly blocked by Israeli authorities. The release of Barghouti, who in 2006 helped author the Palestinian Prisoners’ Document, drawing many of the disparate Palestinian factions together, could have important repercussions for Palestinian politics, as the unifying figure has repeatedly come out on top when Palestinians are asked who they would vote for in any future presidential elections.

Contacted by Al Jazeera on Friday, representatives for Barghouti, including family members, said that while they were hopeful, they have received no information about his possible release.

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Another high-profile Palestinian prisoner is Ahmed Saadat, the head of PFLP, who was accused by Israel of ordering the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001, even though the Justice Ministry initially decided there was not enough evidence to charge him for the killing.

What have the prisoners endured?

While the locations many of the prisoners slated for release are being held in are unknown, rights groups have long voiced concern over conditions within the Israeli prison system.

In August, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem published an extensive report detailing a network of Israeli detention facilities it described as “torture camps”. The global NGO Human Rights Watch also published reports on the Israeli prison system in July and August, detailing rape, the sharing of sexualised images of Palestinian prisoners, including children, and the systemic torture of detainees.

In July 2024, the Israeli minister responsible for the prison system, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, boasted that “everything published about the abominable conditions” Palestinians were subjected to in Israeli jails “was true”.

More than 3,000 Palestinian prisoners are also held under administrative detention, meaning that they are held without trial or charge.