The majority of Palestinians who could be released under the deal reached by Israel and Palestinian Hamas are teenagers, according to an official Israeli list released today.

Israel and the Islamist movement announced today that they have reached an agreement that provides for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day ceasefire.

The first phase envisages the release of 50 Israeli hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners within four days. Other exchanges may follow according to the same three-to-one ratio.

Israel released the names of 300 Palestinian prisoners who could be released. Among them are 33 women, 123 teenagers and 144 men aged around 18 years.

The youngest is Adam Abuda Hasan Yeit, 14, from Israeli-occupied and annexed East Jerusalem. He was arrested in May for “sabotage (…), assault on a police officer and stone throwing”.

The oldest is a 59-year-old woman, Hanan Salah Abdullah Barghouti, who was arrested in September for “Hamas-related activities, including money transfers.”

Of the 300 prisoners, 49 are members of Hamas, 60 of Fatah — the party of the president of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — and 17 belong to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist Palestinian movement).

The political affiliation of the rest is not specified.

The best known is Israa Jaabis, 38, who was found guilty of detonating a gas cylinder in her car at a checkpoint in 2015, injuring a police officer. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Double Welcome Agreement

Israeli human rights group HaMoked welcomed the deal.

“Taking hostages is itself illegal, it is a war crime, and Hamas should have released all hostages unconditionally,” its executive director, Jessica Modell, said in a statement, saying it was good “that Israel is releasing prisoners in order to to achieve this purpose”.

The majority of Palestinian prisoners who may be released are “detainees awaiting trial, for charges ranging from stone-throwing to attempted murder,” he said, noting the presence of women and teenage detainees who have not been charged or trial under administrative detention, i.e. without any charges being brought by the Israeli authorities against the person being detained.

Modell emphasized that “these people should have been released unconditionally, so an agreement to release Israeli hostages and Palestinians in administrative detention is doubly welcome.”