Displaced Palestinians wave national flags as they return to Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday —AFP

Agencies TEL AVIV/ CAIRO

Israel is set to release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murder, in return for 33 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip during the first 42-day phase. Among the Palestinians to go free are 737 jailed detainees and security prisoners, some of whom are serving life sentences for murder.

They include members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, along with women and children being held in Israeli jails. Some prisoners were released in 2011 in return for captive soldier, Gilad Shalit,  but  re-arrested later.

The Justice Ministry had, as of Saturday morning, published the names of 735 Palestinian prisoners to be allowed to file petitions against their release that are to be submitted to the High Court. Israel will also be releasing 1,167 Palestinians detained in the Gaza Strip during the IDF’s ground offensive, who did not participate in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel

The hostages will be released in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners detailed in the terms of the deal. For each of the living women, children and elderly, 30 Palestinian prisoners will be released; for all nine sick hostages, 110 prisoners will be released; for each of the female IDF soldiers, 50 prisoners will be released; for hostages Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held in Gaza for a decade, 30 prisoners will be released for each, in addition to 47 Palestinians released in the 2011 Shalit deal and re-arrested; and for the bodies of hostages in the first stage, Israel will release more than  1,000 Gazan detainees.

Beyond the 33 on the list, 65 more people are held by Hamas, many of them no longer alive. They are to be returned as part of a second phase of a deal, if it comes to pass, that would also see a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.