Palestinians Freed from Israeli Prisons Denied Reunion with Families, Deported Instead

PALESTINE ISRAEL GAZA GENOCIDE, 20 Oct 2025

Qassam Muaddi | Mondoweiss - TRANSCEND Media Service

Palestinians released by Israel under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement arrive at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis for medical check-ups, 13 Oct 2025.
(Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

 As Trump Claims a ‘Forever’ Peace: Palestinians gathered in the West Bank to reunite with loved ones set to be released as part of the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. But many were devastated to learn that Israel had deported them.

13 Oct 2025 – Palestinians in Gaza lived another day without bombs dropping over their heads as the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continued into Monday, which saw the release of Israeli captives from Gaza and the release of 1,718 out of 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

At around 8:00 a.m. local time, Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, handed the first group of seven Israeli captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, without any ceremonies or media exposure. The second group of 13 Israeli captives came an hour later. Meanwhile, the Israeli prison services moved hundreds of Palestinians out of its detention centers.

In the decimated city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, thousands of Palestinians gathered to receive the hundreds of Palestinians released from Israeli prison, including 25 West Bank Palestinians whom the Israeli internal intelligence service, the Shabak (Shin Bet), recommended to be deported to Gaza.

A total of 1,718 Palestinians were released into the Gaza Strip, all of whom were abducted by Israeli forces from within Gaza during the past two years. In addition, Israel released 250 Palestinians who had been serving high or life sentences in Israeli prisons, 88 of whom were released in the West Bank, while the rest were deported to Gaza and Egypt.

In the town of Beitunia, adjacent to Ramallah, dozens of Palestinians gathered in expectation of the released prisoners, who were announced to be released from Israel’s Ofer detention center just outside of the town. Israeli drones flew over the gathering, dropping leaflets that read “we are watching you everywhere. If you show any support for a terrorist group, you will expose yourself to arrest and punishment.”

At around 11:00 a.m., two Red Cross-marked buses drove through Beitunia as Palestinians waved at the released prisoners along the way, in decidedly smaller numbers than the crowds that had received released prisoners during the previous January-March ceasefire.

At the Ramallah Cultural Palace, prisoners’ families and crowds of Palestinians gathered to receive the released prisoners. In the crowds, the family of a prisoner, Murad Abu al-Rub, 45, including two of his sisters, his cousin, and his paralyzed mother, stood on a sidewalk trying with difficulty to get a glimpse of the Red Cross buses as they arrived.

“He has been in jail for 19 years with a life sentence, and the last time we visited him was before October 2023,” the cousin told Mondoweiss. “For more than two years, we haven’t seen him, and the news we have had about him through lawyers is very limited.”

“His father and one of his brothers died during his time in jail,” the cousin explained. “And his mother suffered a stroke last year that left her unable to move or speak. But we brought her because she has been very anxious to see him.”

The family left Jenin in the northern West Bank at 6 a.m. to avoid the Israeli army’s expected road closures, as it did during the previous ceasefire. “The Israeli Shabak came to our house yesterday and warned us not to show any signs of celebration, and they told us that Murad will be released here.”

After all the prisoners left the bus, the family discovered that Murad wasn’t among them. Minutes later, they received confirmation from the Red Cross that he had been deported to Egypt.

As the cousin shared the news, the elderly mother broke into tears and random screams in her wheelchair. As her daughters helped her into the car, one of them tried to console her. “He went to Egypt to study! He’ll be back later,” she said. The mother moved her hand in an apparent refusal to hear, continuing to weep.

Meters away, the older brother of Abdallah Barham, 40, one of the prisoners set to be released, had just learned that he, too, had been deported. The brother was in Ramallah by 7 a.m. to wait for Abdallah, who had served 18 years of his life sentence in Israeli prison.

“The family and the entire village are waiting in Kufr Qadoum to celebrate his release,” he explained. “And the Shabak came yesterday and warned us not to celebrate.”

“Our younger brother and our mother died during his period of imprisonment,” he continued. “And our father has been waiting for this day for the past 18 years. The feeling is tragic.”

“At least he is free now. Thank God,” he added.

Inside the cultural palace building, groups of people gathered around the released prisoners, listening to their stories. One of them, Lutfi Rashdan, who had been detained without trial for a year, showed his broken glasses held together with duct tape. “I asked the prison services to let me change my glasses for a year, but they ignored me,” he told the small crowd.

On the other side of the hall, Allam al-Ra’i, who has been in prison serving a life sentence since 2006, struggled to speak, his voice low and barely audible. His short, white hair and his features gave the impression that he was in his sixties. He is only 47.

At the end of the prisoner exchange, between 9,000 and 10,000 Palestinians will remain behind bars, including around 5,000 Palestinians who are being held without charge or trial, and without clear release dates, under Israel’s system of “administrative detention.”

Palestinian political leaders held in Israeli prison were excluded from Monday’s swap, after a protracted and drawn-out negotiations process and Israeli intransigence. The most notable among the prisoners are popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi and PFLP Secretary General Ahmad Sa’dat, both of whom have been unable to participate in Palestinian politics due to their imprisonment. Both leaders are known for their widespread popular support and stances in favor of Palestinian national unity.

Donald Trump speaks before the Knesset, Sharm al-Sheikh summit

The prisoner exchange took place as U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Tel Aviv, where he was received by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife at the airport. Trump headed to occupied Jerusalem to deliver a speech at the Israeli Knesset ahead of his flight to Egypt, where he is expected to preside over a conference with some 20 state leaders to officially announce his “peace” plan to definitively end the Israeli war on Gaza.

In his speech, Trump said it was a “historic dawn of a new Middle East” and the beginning of a “grand concord and lasting harmony for Israel.” Trump praised Netanyahu, whom he called “hard to deal with.” The U.S. President also lauded special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whom he said was “called in” to draft the plan for the end of the war, all with a wave of applause by the Knesset members. Trump also thanked the Arab and Muslim countries that participated in his plan for the end of the war, which did not receive any applause from the Knesset.

During Trump’s speech, Palestinian Knesset member Ayman Odeh and left-wing anti-Zionist Knesset member Ofer Kasif raised signs calling for the recognition of Palestine as a state, and were forcibly removed from the hall. Trump commented on their removal by saying, “That was very efficient.”

The U.S. President also said that Israel had “won what could be won by force of arms,” and that it should translate victories “on the battlefield” into “peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.” He added that the focus of Palestinians in Gaza should be on “restoring the fundamentals of stability, safety, dignity, and economic development.”

Trump also touched on the issue of Iran, asserting that the Iranians “want a deal” and adding that “we’re going to see if we can do something.” Towards the end of his speech, Trump said he wished that Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, would pardon Netanyahu for his charges of fraud and bribery.

Trump ended his visit to Israel after four hours, considered one of the shortest U.S. Presidential visits to Israel. At Egypt’s Sharm al-Sheikh, Trump presided over the signing ceremony of the Gaza ceasefire deal, along with the leaders of the mediating countries, Egypt and Qatar. At the moment the deal was signed, Trump commented, “It took three thousand years to get to this point.”

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, thanked Trump for his efforts to end the war, noting that “real leadership is not in waging wars, but in the capacity to end them.” Al-Sisi added that the signed deal should open the pathway for a two-state solution and that Palestinians, “like all peoples who have their own state, are no exception.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was represented by Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president, who had not received an invitation to join the summit until Sunday. Although present at the ceremony, the PA is not a signatory to the deal, and its potential role in governing the Gaza Strip after the war remains uncertain.

Israel and Hamas still have to negotiate terms for the definitive end to the war based on Trump’s plan. This includes the body meant to rule over the Strip, which Hamas and Palestinian factions insist must be an independent Palestinian body of technocrats. In contrast, Trump’s plan would include a “board of peace” headed by Trump himself that would be in charge of running Gaza.

Another point to be negotiated is the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions. Palestinian factions, including Hamas, insist that they would lay down their arms upon the establishment of a Palestinian state, while Trump’s plan would see the resistance movement’s disarmament and makes no mention of Palestinian statehood.

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Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss. 

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