Qatar, Turkey to host Palestinian murder convicts freed in hostage deal — officials
Decision on where to send the prisoners is coordinated with Israel, officials tell ToI; Hamas said to vow Fatah and PFLP terror chiefs will be released in ceasefire’s 2nd phase
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Qatar and Turkey are slated to host the Palestinian murder convicts who were released and subsequently deported to Egypt as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, two officials tell The Times of Israel.
Israel demanded that the Palestinians convicted of the most series crimes not be released to Gaza or the West Bank. Egypt agreed to serve as a temporary landing spot for those murder convicts, 70 of whom were released last week and are now reside in Cairo.
Turkey has agreed to take in around 15 of those Palestinians and Qatar is expected to take in the remainder, though talks are ongoing and an additional country may be asked to host some of the prisoners deported later on in the deal, according to a regional official and an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
The decision on where to send the various Palestinian murder convicts is done in coordination with Israel, the two officials said.
A number of senior Hamas members already live in Qatar, where Israeli officials frequently travel to for hostage negotiations, and Turkey has previously hosted top members of the terror group.
Israel has committed to releasing 1,904 prisoners, including 737 serving life sentences, in return for 33 women, children, men over 50 and those considered especially ill, during the ceasefire deal’s 42-day first phase. Seven Israeli hostages have already been released, in return for 290 Palestinian prisoners, including 121 serving life sentences.
Talks have yet to begin on the deal’s second stage, in which Hamas is expected to release young, relatively healthy male hostages, including soldiers, for whom the terrorist organization is likely to demand Israel pay a heavier price.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Tuesday that Hamas has promised the families of prominent terror convicts Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat that they will be released from Israeli prison in the second phase.
According to the source, Hamas is preparing a strategic plan to take over the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority after the latter’s elderly leader Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in office. If Hamas secures his release, Barghouti, a member of Abbas’s Fatah movement, will owe the terror group his life and freedom, Kan said.
Earlier this month, Kan cited a Palestinian source as saying Hamas had prepared a list of five “heavy” prisoners that it wants Israel to release in the deal’s next phases: Barghouti, and four Hamas prisoners cumulatively serving over 200 life sentences for the murders of dozens of Israelis. Saadat was not on the list.
Israel has reportedly ruled out releasing Barghouti — a demand Hamas is said to have made as early as December 2023, two months into the Gaza war.
Saadat and Barghouti are senior terror chiefs considered icons by many Palestinians. Both were arrested in 2002, at the height of the 2000-2005 Seoncd Intifada.
Saadat, 72, the leader of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years behind bars for masterminding the 2001 assassination of then-Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, who advocated for Israel to “transfer” Palestinians abroad.
Barghouti, 64, was sentenced in 2004 to five life sentences for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.
Barghouti had been a leader of the Tanzim, an offshoot of Fatah. He is a popular political figure, especially among younger Palestinians who see him as untainted by Fatah’s corruption and cooperation with Israel. He is considered a leading candidate to win potential Palestinian national elections and has also been touted as someone who can bring both the West Bank and Gaza his wing.
Barghouti has petitioned the High Court of Justice against his prison conditions following his transfer to solitary confinement after October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Hamas banished the Fatah-dominated PA from the Strip in 2007, a year after besting the secularist faction in the last Palestinian legislative elections.
Although both belong to Fatah, Barghouti had launched a slate of candidates separate from Abbas’s during the 2021 legislative election, which Abbas ultimately canceled, accusing Israel of blocking East Jerusalem Palestinians from voting.
Observers believe Abbas has avoided holding elections for years due to fear of defeat, despite his term officially expiring in 2009. He took power in 2004, following the death of Fatah founder Yasser Arafat.
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