Hostages and resistance: The long history of Palestinian prisoner swaps

After 471 days of brutality in Gaza, Israel was forced to agree to a retreat from the enclave, with the exchange of hostages becoming a key component of the deal.

In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, Israel plans to release 1,977 Palestinian prisoners, including 290 serving life sentences, in exchange for 33 hostages held in Gaza. Prisons and prisoners are an integral part of the Palestinian resistance, with hunger strikes and prison break attempts becoming symbolic acts of defiance, but the incarceration of Palestinian activists has left an enduring mark on the social memory of Palestine.

Experiencing 76 years of settler colonialism, Palestinians—rightful owners of the land—have had to structure their resistance as an enduring struggle rather than a singular event. In response to the death and destruction unleashed on them by Israel, they have developed a form of steadfastness known as Sumud (Arabic for perseverance).

Israel tries to be in control of every aspect of Palestinian life. Examples range from restrictive checkpoints established within the occupied West Bank that severely hinder the free movement of Palestinians, separation walls dividing communities, and the blockade of Gaza from land, sea, and air.

This control even extends to the fate of people after they die in prison.

The case of Walid Daqqa serves as a striking example of this abusive treatment. Sentenced to 36 years in prison in 1987 at the age of 24 by an Israeli court, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, Daqqa, was due to be released in 2023. But Israel extended his sentence by two more years, which would complete in 2025. Daqaa died on April 7, 2024, yet Israeli officials initially announced that his body would be held captive until March 2025 “to complete his sentence.”

Despite an outcry by the human rights groups, Israeli authorities later stated that Daqqa’s body would be held as a bargaining chip. "The military command has the authority to order the holding of the bodies of terrorists for negotiations, including the bodies of terrorists who are citizens of Israel," the court said in a ruling.

Prisoner resistance and defiance

In response to this harsh treatment, Palestinian resistance employs various methods to emphasise their resilience and determination to survive despite the occupation's efforts. The most common of these are hunger strikes. One of the most notable figures associated with this form of protest in recent years was that of resistance leader Khader Adnan, who died after an 87-day hunger strike protesting his unlawful detention without trial.

Another act of defiance has been the smuggling of sperm from Israeli prisons. Many Palestinians, especially those who have been sentenced to life imprisonment and those with high-term sentences, have smuggled sperm out of Israeli prisons to have children, ensuring their legacy continues despite their confinement. Until May 2023, 76 Palestinian children were born through this method, including the child of Walid Daqqa, mentioned above.

Civil society and human rights organisations such as Addameer (Arabic for conscience) and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, were established to document and challenge the treatment of detainees. Despite their efforts, Palestinian armed resistance movements soon came to the realisation that the release of their citizens will only come through creating a different scenario.

Earlier agreements

Prisoner exchange agreements have been the most frequent and effective method during the conflict between Palestine and Israel. Since 1968, there have been more than ten such deals. One of the most symbolic early exchanges was the release of Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, a member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, captured by Israel in 1965.

Hijazi secured his freedom after the Fatah movement exchanged him for an Israeli soldier. In honour of his release, the Palestinian National Council designated April 17 as “Palestinian Prisoners’ Day,” which has been observed ever since as a national day to honour prisoners' freedom and advocate for their rights.

The largest prisoner exchange occurred in 1987, when the Israeli occupation released 4,700 Palestinians in exchange for six Israeli soldiers captured in Lebanon by Fatah.

And the most well-known exchange in recent history, known as Wafa al-Ahrar (Faithful to the Free) took place in 2011, when Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in Gaza for five years.

Among those freed was Yahya Sinwar after 23 years in prison, where he wrote a novel about his personal experience titled The Thorn and the Carnation. He would go on to become the head of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza in 2017. Sinwar, often referred to as the engineer of the Al-Aqsa flood, played a crucial role in orchestrating resistance operations. He was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on October 16, 2024.

The role of prisoner exchanges

During Israel's assault on Gaza in 2014, Hamas claimed it held the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldi, as well as two Israeli citizens Ethiopian-Israeli Avera Mengistu and Bedouin Arab-Israeli Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed the border into the enclave. Hamas wanted to use these captives in a prisoner exchange, but in this case the Israeli government didn’t respond to these demands.

Abu Ubaydah, spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) released video messages in 2015 and 2016 on Palestinian Prisoners' Day, reminding his audience about the importance of Palestinians held captive by Israel, reassuring his movement will never abandon them.

The next year, on the same day, in 2017, around 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israel went on hunger strike. Their key demands included more family visits, improved prison conditions with better medical care, and the abolition of solitary confinement and administrative detention—imprisonment without charge or trial. Al-Qassam continued to warn the Israeli state by offering the exchange of Israelis in their custody, to no avail.

The conditions of Palestinians in Israeli prisons gained international attention after the Freedom Tunnel operation in 2021 when six Palestinian prisoners dug an escape tunnel dug using rudimentary tools. However, in two days’ time they were all recaptured.

In response, Abu Ubaydah made a speech where he stressed that “the heroes of the Freedom Tunnel will come out with their heads held high, and the Qassam leadership has decided that a future exchange deal will not take place unless these heroes are freed.”

True to its word, Toufan al-Ahrar (Flood of the Free) deal that came after al-Aqsa Flood Operation that started on October 7, 2023, indeed included three out of six Gilboa prison breakers.

Unity in resistance

Despite ideological differences between some Palestinian factions—ranging from Marxist-Leninist groups to Arab secular nationalists and Islamic movements—prisoner exchanges have demonstrated unity in the broader resistance struggle. The culture of steadfastness is evident in their commitment to ensuring that no member is left behind in Israeli prisons.

Note: Throughout this text, the terms "prisoner," "detainee," "hostage," and "captive" are used interchangeably. While the author acknowledges the nuances between these terms, this article focuses on the broader discussion of incarceration and its role in the Palestinian struggle. Palestinian resistance groups often use the term al-Asīr ("The Captive") rather than al-Sajin ("The Prisoner") to emphasise the illegitimacy of Israeli occupation.