After 39 Years Israel Frees ‘Dean of Palestinian Prisoners’

After 39 years of mistreatment and retaliation in Israeli jails, Mohammed Al-Tous, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, was released on Saturday as part of the second batch under phase one of the Jan. 19 ceasefire agreement and prisoner exchange deal.

Al-Tous, nicknamed the “dean of Palestinian Prisoners,” hails from the village of Jab’a in Bethlehem, in the southern occupied West Bank. He has spent 39 years in Israeli prisons since his arrest in 1985.

Who is the dean of Palestinian Prisoners?

Mohammed Ahmed Abdul-Hamid Al-Tous, 69, is the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli detention. He was arrested in October 1985 and sentenced to life in prison for leading a group in carrying out military operations against Israeli military targets. He sustained severe injuries during his arrest.

Over the years, Al-Tous endured various forms of mistreatment and retaliation. In addition to the serious injuries he suffered during his arrest from Israeli gunfire and enduring lengthy and harsh interrogations, the Israeli forces demolished his family home three times.

Israel repeatedly refused to release Al-Tous in all prisoner exchange deals and release initiatives during his incarceration, including a group of veteran prisoners in 2014, in which he was listed, but Israel refused to release.

A year later, his wife’s health deteriorated, and she fell into a coma for a full year before passing away in 2015, without Al-Tous being able to bid her farewell.

Al-Tous is among the veteran prisoners detained before the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, a group that now numbers 21 prisoners following last year’s death of Walid Daqqa.

This group is joined by 11 re-arrested prisoners from the Gilad Shalit exchange deal of 2011, who had been imprisoned before the Oslo Accords, released in 2011, and then re-arrested in 2014, most notably Nael Barghouthi.

Prisoner exchange

Palestinian resistance group Hamas earlier Saturday handed over four female Israeli soldiers under a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel.

Some 200 Palestinian prisoners were also released on Saturday in exchange for the four freed Israeli soldiers.

Television footage showed the arrival of 114 prisoners to the West Bank city of Ramallah from the Ofer Military Prison aboard three International Red Cross buses.

Sixteen prisoners, accompanied by Red Cross representatives, also arrived at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, to the warm welcome of thousands.

Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News channel also reported that two buses carrying 70 freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in Egypt under the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The Prisoners’ Media Office said early Saturday that the freed prisoners include 121 who had been serving life sentences and 79 with lengthy sentences.

It added that 70 of those serving life sentences will be sent outside the Palestinian territories.

Under phase one of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel is now set to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor area that separates northern Gaza from its south, allowing displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.

Ceasefire seeking permanent truce

The first six-week phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured more than 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.

On day one of the ceasefire, Israel released 90 Palestinian detainees in return for three Israeli captives set free by Hamas.

The three-phase ceasefire agreement includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza according to Anadolu.

The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of untold numbers of elderly people, women, and children.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

​​​​​​​Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Continue reading
Israel Kills Anadolu Cameraman in Gaza

Saed Abu Nabhan, a freelance Anadolu cameraman in Gaza, was killed on Friday by a long-range rifle attack by the Israeli army. Abu Nabhan, 25, had a wife and one child.

In the fatal incident, the Israeli military first surrounded an area in the Al-Jadeed Refugee Camp, located in the central Gaza Strip’s Nuseirat region, where many journalists were, before targeting those in the area.

Footage from the scene shows a wounded individual being rushed out of a house on a stretcher with the help of aid workers.

Nearby, Abu Nabhan is seen trying to run while covering the incident with his equipment. At that moment, he is targeted by what appears to be a shot fired from a long-range rifle.

Abu Nabhan then falls to the ground and lies motionless. People nearby struggle fearfully to approach him due to the threat of being targeted by Israeli bullets.

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on the attack, confirming that Abu Nabhan was killed.

Separately, at least one person was reported dead, with the deceased and injured taken to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, following an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood.

The death of Abu Nabhan brought the total number of Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023 to 203. Reports also indicate that 399 journalists have been injured, and 43 others captured.

The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 46,000 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

Continue reading
Genocide: 6 Killed in Deor Al-Balah

Six more Palestinians were killed in Israeli overnight airstrikes on homes in Gaza City and Deir al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip as the Israeli genocidal war continues unabated, local media reported on Wednesday morning.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted medical sources as saying that five Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home for the “Barghout” family in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeastern Gaza City.

Another Palestinian was killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in Deir al-Balah city, the medical sources added.

Ten more Palestinians, including six children, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Bureij refugee camp, Wafa also reported according to Anadolu.

The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on the enclave that has killed nearly 45,900 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

Continue reading
Cheering Ireland

The International Court of Justice announced today that Ireland has filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s case against Israel, based on Article 63 of the Statute.

The Court clarified that Ireland invoked its right to intervene under this article, relying on its status as a party to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Last month, Ireland joined South Africa’s genocide lawsuit against Israel.

Continue reading
More Than 1000 Mosques Destroyed in Gaza

More than 1,000 mosques have been completely destroyed and/or damaged in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip last year, Palestinian authorities stated on Sunday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs pointed out that 815 mosques were completely destroyed whilst 151 others partially damaged.

In addition to that the ministry stated that 19 cemeteries and three churches were also destroyed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza that started on 7 October 2023 and followed the following year and goes on today.

https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1842641355652403657

In the occupied West Bank, the ministry recorded 256 settler intrusions into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem last year according to Anadolu.

According to the ministry, some 2,567 illegal settlers forced their way into the mosque complex to celebrate the week-long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which was marked from Dec. 25 to Jan. 2.

The ministry also documented Israeli attacks on 20 mosques in the occupied West Bank.

Tension has been running high across the occupied Palestinian territories due to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 45,800 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

https://twitter.com/PeruginiNic/status/1866007113840857218

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

Continue reading