RAMALLAH, West Bank — Marwan Barghouti — widely regarded as the most popular and potentially unifying Palestinian leader — is not included among the prisoners Israel says it will free under the new Gaza cease-fire that calls for hostages to be released by Hamas.
A list of roughly 250 Palestinian prisoners posted Friday on the Israeli government’s website does not include Barghouti or several other high-profile detainees long demanded by Hamas. It was not immediately clear whether that list is final.
Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera the group continues to insist on Barghouti’s release and is discussing the matter with mediators. Israel, however, considers Barghouti a terrorist and he remains in prison serving multiple life sentences after a 2004 conviction in connection with attacks that killed five people.
Beyond his conviction, Barghouti’s stature worries some Israeli officials for political reasons. An advocate of a two-state solution who also supported armed resistance to occupation, Barghouti — 66 — is seen by many Palestinians as a unifying figure and a potential successor to the long-serving, increasingly unpopular Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. Some Palestinians compare him to Nelson Mandela for his symbolic role in their national struggle.
Under the cease-fire that took effect Friday, Hamas is to free about 20 living Israeli hostages by Monday. Israel will release about 250 Palestinians who were serving prison sentences and roughly 1,700 people seized from Gaza over the past two years and held without charge. The prisoner releases carry heavy symbolic weight on both sides: many Israelis view those jailed as terrorists, while many Palestinians see those held by Israel as political prisoners or freedom fighters resisting occupation.
Most Palestinians named on Israel’s list were arrested during the 2000s amid the Second Intifada and were convicted of involvement in shootings, bombings or other attacks that killed or attempted to kill Israeli civilians, settlers or soldiers. More than half of those being freed will reportedly go to Gaza or be exiled outside the Palestinian territories.
Among those slated for release is Iyad Abu al-Rub, an Islamic Jihad commander convicted of orchestrating suicide bombings in Israel from 2003–2005 that killed 13 people. The longest-held prisoner to be freed is 64-year-old Samir Abu Naama, a Fatah member arrested in 1986 and convicted of planting explosives. The youngest listed is Mohammed Abu Qatish, who was 16 when arrested in 2022 and later convicted of an attempted stabbing.
Hamas has repeatedly demanded Barghouti’s freedom in past negotiations. Israel has resisted, in part citing the precedent of releasing senior militants who later returned to leadership roles: Yahya Sinwar, freed in a 2011 swap, later became a top architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that led to this latest war in Gaza before being killed by Israeli forces last year.
Barghouti’s life story reinforces his political appeal. Born in 1959 in the West Bank village of Kobar, he rose to prominence at Bir Zeit University as an organizer of student protests against Israeli occupation and emerged as a leader during the first Palestinian uprising in 1987. Israel deported him to Jordan, but he returned in the 1990s during the Oslo process that created the Palestinian Authority.
When the Second Intifada erupted, Israel accused Barghouti — then head of Fatah in the West Bank — of leading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a loose network of Fatah-linked armed groups. Barghouti did not publicly acknowledge those ties. He has written that he is “not a terrorist, but neither am I a pacifist,” expressing support for a Palestinian state while defending the right to resist what he described as expanding settlements and military violence.
At his 2004 trial, Barghouti refused to recognize the court’s authority and was convicted on murder charges and given five life sentences, though he was acquitted of other attacks.
Throughout his imprisonment he has maintained political relevance. In 2021 he registered a slate for parliamentary elections that were later canceled; years earlier he led more than 1,500 prisoners in a 40-day hunger strike demanding better treatment. Analysts say he is one of the few Palestinian figures who can bridge internal divisions and appeal across factions and to some Israelis, a quality that threatens both Israel’s right-wing government and the Palestinian leadership around Abbas.
Barghouti was last publicly mentioned in August when Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posted a video of himself confronting Barghouti inside a prison and warning that Israel would “wipe out” anyone who acts against the country.
