The 39-year-old prisoner, released on Saturday November 26, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2015 for exploding a gas cylinder, injuring a police officer. She had become a symbol of Palestinian prisoners.
A face that was widely taken up in the Palestinian demonstrations. Israa Jaabis, 39, is probably the best-known detainee in the second group of Palestinians released by Israel on Saturday evening in exchange for hostages. The former prisoner, with her partially burned face, was often used as a symbol of the suffering of Palestinian prisoners.
Israa Jaabis was sentenced to 11 years in prison for detonating a gas cylinder she was carrying in the trunk of her car at a roadblock in 2015. She then injured a police officer. According to Israeli authorities, she was preparing for a suicide attack.
The Palestinian woman was injured in the explosion and suffered partial burns to her face and hands. Her photo, which shows her in front of an Israeli court raising her atrophied fingers and her face partially burned, is regularly waved at demonstrations or to illustrate the suffering of Palestinian prisoners, making her a symbol.
A photo of Palestinian Israa Jaabis, who was imprisoned in an Israeli prison after injuring a police officer by detonating a gas cylinder in 2015, was held up to a sign in Ramallah by a protester to mark the day Palestinian prisoners called for her release . April 17, 2022 – ABBAS MOMANI / AFP
“Free everyone”
Shortly after his release on Saturday evening, Israa Jaabis said he was ashamed to “speak of joy while all of Palestine is hurting.”
“They must release everyone,” she pleaded, returning to her home in Jerusalem’s Jabal Moukkaber neighborhood with her 13-year-old son Moatassem.
Her sister Mouna also says she is divided. “We are trying to accept the idea that all these prisoners will be released after thousands of people have been killed, but it is difficult and our joy is mixed with the bloodshed,” she admits.
The second exchange in two days
On Saturday evening, 39 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel in exchange for 13 Israeli and four Thai hostages. It was the second such transaction in two days.
Once again, the Palestinian prisoners included only women or young people under the age of 19 and no one was convicted of a crime.
A new exchange of hostages and prisoners is expected this Sunday. The agreement reached this week between Hamas and Israel calls for a four-day ceasefire that will allow for the release of a total of 50 hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners.
Juliette Desmonceaux with AFP