TEL AVIV, Israel — In exchange for Hamas freeing its final group of Israeli hostages, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinians from prison in October.
Most of the Palestinians released by Israel had been arrested in Gaza on suspicion of taking part in hostilities during the war and held without charge, and they were sent back to the territory. But 250 of them were serving long sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.
For 154 of those prisoners, their freedom came with a major condition: They were sent into exile, never to return to their homes in the Palestinian territories. They were sent to Cairo, with their final destination still undetermined.
Israeli security experts say the deportation policy is intended to prevent released prisoners from returning to militant activity and posing a future threat to Israelis. But past cases suggest the policy of deporting Palestinian prisoners abroad can have unintended, long-term consequences for Israeli security.
Hamas leaders behind the Oct. 7 attack were released prisoners
Two prisoners released by Israel in a 2011 prisoner-hostage swap with Hamas ended up taking leadership roles with the militant group after being released, according to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency.
Zaher Jabarin, deported to Turkey, began overseeing Hamas’ financial operations, the Shin Bet said in a report. Another, Yahya Sinwar, became the Hamas leader in Gaza who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel — when 1,144 Israelis were killed, according to Israeli government figures, sparking the Gaza war.
Another notable case is Saleh al-Arouri, a founding commander of Hamas’ military wing. He was released from Israeli prison and deported in 2010. Settling first in Syria and later moving between Turkey, Lebanon and Qatar, he is widely credited with building Hamas’ West Bank militant networks and helping plan the Oct. 7 attack.
A mastermind of Hamas’ hostage-taking strategy is now free
Among the prisoners released in October and deported are those responsible for some of the most notorious attacks against Israelis in recent decades.
One is Mahmoud Issa, who founded a Hamas unit decades ago that was responsible for abducting Israeli soldiers to use them as bargaining chips for pushing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. He was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to life imprisonment, convicted for abducting and killing an Israeli police officer.
Another is Imad Qawasmeh, a Hamas operative sent abroad in the recent deal, who was incarcerated for more than 20 years in connection with a pair of suicide bombings that killed 16 Israelis in the southern city of Beersheba in 2004.
The Israeli debate about deporting Palestinian prisoners
Some Israeli security analysts say deporting high-risk prisoners abroad is better than allowing them to return to their families and communities in the Palestinian territories. They argue that the distance reduces the released prisoners’ ability to resume operational roles in militant groups like Hamas.
Deportation can also decrease the influence they have on Palestinian communities in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, where they could otherwise inspire further violence toward Israel, said Michael Milshtein, an Israeli expert in Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University and former Israeli military intelligence officer.
“It can be better than having them here, mainly when it comes to those who are very experienced, admired and will contribute significantly to the terror infrastructure,” said Kobi Michaeli, an Israeli security expert with the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute think tanks.
The effect of deportation, from a Palestinian perspective
Palestinian human rights advocates criticize the deportations, which prisoners agreed to under conditions of imprisonment, as forcible displacement. Israeli analysts defend the practice, saying prisoners were offered a choice to remain incarcerated or be freed and deported.
The majority of Palestinian prisoners’ close relatives were barred by Israeli authorities from traveling abroad to greet their deported relatives after the most recent prisoner release, according to Qadura Fares, a veteran Palestinian prisoner advocate and the former head of prisoner affairs for the Palestinian Authority. Fares says the families were told the restriction was for security reasons.
Fares himself was imprisoned in Israel in 1981, charged with being part of a militant squad that obtained weapons and conducted attacks, and was released to the West Bank in 1994 as part of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
“Every prisoner dreams of being free in his own environment, in his town or village, among his family and friends, where people know him and where he has personal and social status,” Fares told NPR. “Israel thinks that it can distance these people from their homeland in order to stop them from influencing their societies, but it is a mistake. If a prisoner is released to a normal and familiar environment, he adapts and lives a normal life.”
But Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency suggests otherwise. A report by the Israeli parliament’s research arm, The Knesset Research and Information Center, cites Shin Bet figures that about 75% of the Palestinian prisoners released in the 2011 prisoner-hostage deal returned to militant activity. The figures do not account for prisoners who are no longer alive.
When asked whether deportation could serve as a form of punishment, Michaeli dismissed the idea: “I think that for these people to live in Doha or in Istanbul under the hospitality of the [Qataris] and the Turks, is not a punishment.”
The Shin Bet declined NPR’s request for comment on Israel’s deportation policy.
The impact of Israel’s recent strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar
If released prisoners end up in cities like Qatar’s capital of Doha, or Istanbul and Ankara in Turkey, they could be in “safe zones” enabling released prisoners to operate more freely and play a future role in groups like Hamas, Michaeli explained.
“They have a sort of immunity, because Israel will not target them, at least not under the current circumstances,” Michaeli said.
Israel is widely believed to be behind one assassination of a Hamas figure in a Gulf state in the past, but its strike in September on Hamas leaders in Qatar angered the U.S. and “was a lesson for Israel: You cannot really assassinate anyone in Hamas any place you want, because there is a price for moves like that,” said Milshtein.
Israel could pursue these individuals abroad at a later date, but the large-scale release of high-profile prisoners will place a heavy burden on Israel’s intelligence agencies, requiring ongoing surveillance to prevent future attacks, writes Israeli analystYoni Ben Menachem of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a conservative Israeli think tank.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo told NPR that the 154 prisoners deported last month were initially put up in Renaissance Cairo Mirage City Hotel, a high-end Marriott hotel. But after the Daily Mail reported on their location, dubbing it “Hotel Hamas,” they were transferred to another hotel along the Gulf of Suez in the city of Ain Sokhna, about an hour and a half outside of Cairo, the embassy said.
Israel and Egypt have not commented on their ultimate destination.
Nuha Musleh in Ramallah, West Bank, Ahmad Abuhamda in Cairo and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this story.
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