(14 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah, West Bank – 14 January 2025
1. Various of prisoners’ family members during the weekly gathering to demand access to their loved ones and their release
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Intisar Bayoud, mother of prisoner Habis Bayoud:
"I tell the mothers of the prisoners to put their trust in the almighty and that relief is near, God willing. We have hope in God that this deal will be completed and that our sons, especially those sentenced to life, will be included in this agreement."
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah al-Zaghari, Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club: ++PARTLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 4++
"I believe that the coming hours will be crucial for finalizing and announcing an agreement for the release of a number of Palestinian detainees. There are approximately 10,400 Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons, in addition to thousands from the Gaza Strip, most of whom are facing the policy of enforced disappearance. According to the understandings being reported in the media, the release will include child prisoners, of whom there are more than 320, as well as female prisoners, numbering around 85. We look forward to the release of those serving life sentences, some of whom have been detained for nearly 20 to 25 years, totalling around 600 prisoners."
4. Various of prisoners’ family members during the weekly gathering to demand access to their loved ones and their release
STORYLINE:
Family members of Palestinian prisoners gathered on Tuesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah as the prospect of an agreement between Hamas and Israel for the release of their relatives in exchange for Israeli hostages loomed.
Intisar Bayoud is the mother of prisoner Habis Bayoud from the town of Al-Mazra’a Al-Gharbiyah northwest of Ramallah.
Her son was arrested in 2002, accused at that time of participating in the killing of Israeli soldiers who invaded the old Ramallah police station.
He was sentenced to life in prison.
Bayoud said that she hopes "this deal will be completed and that our sons, especially those sentenced to life, will be included in this agreement."
Abdullah al- Zaghari, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, believes that the coming hours will be crucial for finalizing and announcing an agreement for the release of a number of Palestinian detainees.
"There are approximately 10,400 Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons, in addition to thousands from the Gaza Strip, most of whom are facing the policy of enforced disappearance," said al- Zaghari.
Israel and Hamas have come under renewed pressure to halt the conflict in the lead-up to the January 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, recently joined U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators in the Gulf country’s capital, Doha.
The phased deal would be based on a framework laid out by President Joe Biden in May and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
In the first phase, Hamas would release dozens of the most vulnerable hostages seized in the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners as Israeli forces pull back from population centers.
At least some Palestinians would be allowed to return to their homes and there would be a surge of humanitarian aid.
In the second phase, Hamas says it would release the remaining hostages in exchange for a large number of prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in the October 7 attack and abducted another 250.
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