8:54 a.m. ET, November 24, 2023
Hamas releases names of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons
From CNN’s Mostafa Salem: Israeli military police guard the entrance to Israel’s Ofer military prison on November 24. Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance/Getty Images Hamas released the names of Palestinian prisoners expected to be in the first group to be released from Israeli prisons on Friday.
The list contains 39 names – 24 women and 15 minors. The majority of people on the list come from the occupied West Bank.
CNN previously reported on the numbers on the list.
The prisoners will be moved from two prisons – Damon and Megiddo, both southeast of Haifa – and driven to Ofer prison south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where they will undergo final checks by the Red Cross, an Israeli official told CNN on Thursday.
Some background information: There are currently around 8,300 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons, said Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for the Affairs of Detainees and Former Prisoners.
More than 3,000 of them are being held in what Israel calls “administrative detention,” Fares told CNN, adding that this means they are being held without knowing the charges against them and without any ongoing legal proceedings .
Israel has increased its arrests since the October 7 Hamas attacks. This month alone, up to 2,070 arrests have been documented in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to the concern of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. This includes 145 children and 55 women.