Shin Bet bends Hamas: Prisoner release ratio in deal is lowest in decades

The 1,700 Gaza detainees who will be released will not be terrorists who raided on October 7, 2023, and the release of Hamas operatives has been limited as much as possible.

The number of Palestinian security prisoners being released by Israel in exchange for the return of 48 hostages, 20 still alive, is the lowest ratio agreed upon in decades, Walla reported on Friday night.

Walla learned that the final list of security prisoners includes 195 prisoners serving life sentences and only 60 of them are Hamas operatives. Just for comparison, in the Shalit deal, 450 Hamas operatives were released, including prisoners who led significant terrorism against the State of Israel.

The 1,700 Gaza detainees who will be released will not be terrorists who raided on October 7, 2023, and the release of Hamas operatives has been limited as much as possible.

The Shin Bet managed to uphold the principles it had established at the beginning of the negotiations with Hamas regarding who would not be included in the list of those to be released:

Hamas’s 25 most senior prisoners were not included in the list despite Hamas’s initial demand to include them in the deal. This includes the bodies of Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Sinwar.

Walla learned that the Shin Bet’s veto list included a total of around 100 security prisoners. In addition to Hamas senior officials and sergeants, it also included Hamas operatives who were heads of infrastructure, experts in sabotage and explosives, and child murderers. For example, the terrorists who murdered the Fogel family were not included in the list.

Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, their three-month-old baby sister and parents Ehud and Ruth were murdered by PFLP terrorists in March 2011. Only the 12-year-old eldest daughter Tamar, eight-year-old son Roi and 2-year-old son, Shay survived the attack on the Fogel family home.

Excluded from the deal

Senior officials and sergeants that Hamas demanded were also on the Shin Bet’s veto list and constituted a red line throughout the negotiations. Israel will not release:

•⁠ ⁠ Ibrahim Hamed – was the head of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank during the Second Intifada. Considered the mastermind behind several serious suicide attacks, in which dozens of Israelis were murdered (the attack at Cafe Moment in Jerusalem, the attack at the Sheffield Club in Rishon LeZion).

•⁠ ⁠ Ahmed Saadat – Secretary-General of the Hamas in the West Bank, who is a symbol for planning the murder of the late Minister Rehavam Ze’evi. A figure that Hamas has been trying to release since the Shalit deal and in all the deals throughout the current war.

•⁠ ⁠ Marwan Barghouti – is a leadership symbol in the Palestinian public, from the days of the First Intifada he led the Tanzim in the West Bank. He was convicted due to his involvement in attacks in which Israelis were murdered.

•⁠ ⁠ Hassan Salameh – a senior Hamas figure, was one of the planners of serious bomb attacks in which dozens of Israelis were murdered.

•⁠ ⁠ Abbas al-Sayed – Head of Hamas in Tul During the Second Intifada, Kerem was responsible for planning the attack on the hotel in the park in which dozens of Israelis were murdered.

The list also did not include security prisoners who are Israeli citizens – another clause in the negotiations on the lists that the Shin Bet insisted on.

Walla learned from sources involved in the negotiations for the release of the hostages that pressure was exerted by Hamas to release prisoners who had committed murder and had not yet been sentenced, or extremely dangerous former prisoners who were recently arrested (for example, the heads of Hamas’s infrastructure in Hebron who were recently thwarted by the Shin Bet). The Shin Bet repelled these attempts and refused to release these Hamas prisoners. In practice, they are not being released.

A look at past deals

It is important to note that the Shin Bet negotiating team, led by two current and former Shin Bet deputy heads, S. and M., succeeded in bending the Hamas negotiating team, and the analysis of the data shows that the prisoner release ratio is low compared to past deals:

•⁠ ⁠ Jibril Deal (1985) – three living IDF soldiers were traded for 1,151 prisoners, of which 380 were life prisoners.

•⁠ ⁠ Deal with Hezbollah (2004) – Three bodies of IDF soldier and a living civilian (Elhanan Tenenbaum) were exchanged for 436 prisoners.

•⁠ ⁠ Shalit deal (2011) – For a living IDF soldier, 1,027 prisoners were released (including 450 Hamas members), of whom 279 were life prisoners.