Barguti, who was arrested at age 19 by Israeli police in 1978, called his family on Tuesday that he would be released on Saturday under the Seventh Convict Exchange as part of a ceasefire contract, Palestinian media centre reported.
Barghouti, now 67, is suffering from several illnesses, having been exposed to the worst forms of torture behind the bar. He was denied the right to attend his father’s funeral in 2004 by Israeli authorities.
He also told his family that his release would be conditional on his forced asylum in a private country, the report added.
Barguti, now a symbol of Palestinian resilience, was sentenced to 112 years in prison for allegedly murdering an Israeli professional officer north of the occupied Ramallah. In 2009, he broke the Guinness World Records for the world’s longest-serving political prisoners.
He was released in 2011 on a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and the Israeli regime. But freedom didn’t last long. In June 2014, Israeli authorities re-arrested the terms of the exchange agreement, re-arrested Barguti and sentenced him to 30 months in prison, but after completing his term, they were sentenced to his former life sentence. And revived 18 years.
Before the AL-AQSA flood project in October 2023, there were about 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Statistics from Palestinian officials show that the number has now risen to over 10,000.
The occupation groups failed to achieve their declared purpose of freeing prisoners and eliminating Hamas, despite killing at least 48,284 Palestinians, mostly women and children in Gaza.
After 15 months of genocide, Israel accepted Hamas’ long-standing terms of negotiations based on the Gaza ceasefire that began on January 19th.
The ceasefire consists of three phases, each lasting for 42 days. Phase 1 – In the current phase, a total of 33 Israeli prisoners will be released in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian aiduteees held in the regime prisons.
So far, Hamas has released 19 Israeli prisoners and five Thai nationals in exchange for 985 Palestinian aidutees.
SD/