The most popular and possibly united Palestinian leader – Marouan Bargouti – is not included among the prisoners who intend to release, in return for the hostages held by Hamas, as part of the new truce in Gaza.
Israel has also rejected the release of other high -profile prisoners whose liberation has long been demanding, although it was not immediately clear whether the list of about 250 prisoners published on Friday on the official website of the Israeli government is final.
Higher official Hamas Musa Abu Marzuk told Al Jazeera network that the organization insists on liberating Bargouti and other high -ranking persons and that it is in discussions with the mediators.
Who is Bargouti
Israel considers Bargouti terrorism leader. He is serving multiple life sentences after his conviction in 2004 in relation to attacks on Israel that claimed the lives of five people.
The 66 -year -old is widely regarded Possible successor to Mahmoud Abbasof the aging and non -popular leader of the internationally recognized Palestinian authority that manages the west bank pockets. Polls steadily show that Bargouti is The most popular Palestinian leader.
He was born in the village of Kobar in the West Bank in 1959. Studying History and Political Science at Bir Zeit University led student demonstrations against the Israeli occupation. He emerged as an organizer in the first Palestinian uprising, which erupted in December 1987.
Eventually Israel expelled him in Jordan. He returned to the West Bank in the 1990s in the context of intermediate peace agreements that created the Palestinian Authority and aimed to pave the way for the creation of a state.
But some experts say that Israel is afraid of Bargouti For another reason: a two -state -state support supporter even when supporting armed resistance to Occupation, Bargouti could become a one Strong Point of Coalition for Palestinians. Some Palestinians see him as their own Nelson Mandela, the southern African fighter against apartheid who became the first black president of his country.
With the truce and the removal of Israeli forces from Gaza in force on Friday, Hamas until Monday. Israel is going to release about 250 Palestinians serving penalties, as well as about 1,700 people arrested by Gaza for the last two years and are being held without charges.
Following the outbreak of the second Inifanta, Israel accused Barguti-then head of Fatah on the West Bank-of being the leader of al-Akha martyrs, an organization of armed groups associated with Fatah who carried out attacks.
Bargouti never commented on his ties with the battalions. Although he was hoping for a Palestinian state next to Israel peacefully, he said that the Palestinians had the right to resist the growing Israeli settlement and the army’s violence against the Palestinians. “I’m not a terrorist, but I am not a pacifist,” he wrote in an article in the Washington Post in 2002.
Shortly thereafter, he was arrested by Israel. In the trial he chose not to defend himself because he did not recognize the jurisdiction of the court. He was sentenced to murder for involvement in various attacks on the battalions and was imposed on him five life sentences, and was acquitted for other attacks.
United and through prison
In 2021, Barguti submitted his own ballot for the parliamentary elections that were eventually canceled. A few years earlier, he led more than 1,500 prisoners in a 40 -day hunger strike demanding better treatment in the Israeli penitentiary system.
Barguti showed that he could build bridges between Palestinian divisions even when he was approaching Israelis, said Muine Rabani, a non -permanent collaborator at Democracy for the Arab World Now and editor of Jadaliyya, an online magazine focusing on the Middle East.
Bargouti “is regarded as a credible national leader, someone who can lead the Palestinians in a way that Abbas fails to do so,” he said.
Israel is “seeking to avoid” this, as his policy for years has been to keep the Palestinians divided and the administration of Abbas weak, Rabani said, adding that Abbas also feels threatened by any liberation of Bargouti.
Bargouti is not related to the corruption that has hit the Palestinian Abbas Authority and has alienated many of it, said Eyal Zisser, Vice-Rector of the University of Tel Aviv and a Arab-Israeli relations expert.
Its popularity could strengthen Palestinian institutions, a terrifying perspective for the Israeli right -wing government, which opposes any steps to the state entity, Zischer said.
Barguti last appeared in August, when the far-right Israeli interior minister Ithamar Ben-Giver posted a video scolding Bargouti in a prison, saying that Israel will face anyone who acts against the country and “eliminate them”.
The list
Releases are strong on both sides. The Israelis see prisoners as terrorists, with some of them being involved in suicidal attacks. Many Palestinians consider the thousands held by Israel as political prisoners or freedom fighters who have resist decades of military occupation. Many of those released had been imprisoned two decades ago.
Most of those included in the list of Israeli prisoners are members of Hamas and Fatah who were arrested in the 2000s. Many of them were convicted of participating in shots, bombings or other attacks that killed or attempted to kill Israelis, After their release, more than half will be sent to Gaza or exiled outside the Palestinian territories, according to the list.
One prisoner to be released is Iad Abu al-Rub, commander of Islamic Jihad, who was convicted of organizing suicidal bombings in Israel from 2003 to 2005, who killed 13 people.
The oldest and long -term prisoner to be released is 64 -year -old Samir Abu Nama, a member of Fatah who was arrested by the West Bank in 1986 and convicted of possession of explosives. The youngest is Mohammed Abu Katis, who was 16 years old when he was arrested in 2022 and was convicted of attempted stabbing. Hamas has long called for the liberation of Bargouti.
