Prisoner Exchange Continues After Palestinian Resistance Receives Guarantees

Farrukh Abadi

Hamas released 3 Israeli prisoners of war in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in what marks the 6th prisoner exchange of the ongoing ceasefire. The latest round of the exchange between Israel and Palestinian resistance forces in Gaza comes after the leading Palestinian resistance group Hamas stated that they were not going to continue with the prisoner exchange until Israel abides with the ceasefire deal. Hamas pointed to Israel continuing to fire on Palestinians in Gaza, preventing the entrance of the agreed amount of aid, delaying their retreat from Gaza, and obstructing the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza. Already there have been around 270 violations by Israel documented by Hamas.

Hamas explained its return to the prisoner exchange in a statement, saying, “The resumption of the exchange process today is in line with our commitment to mediators and the guarantees we received to ensure the occupation’s compliance with the agreement.”

During the release of Israeli prisoners, Palestinian resistance forces had on display maps of 11 Israeli sites they took over at the onset of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as well as portraits of heroes of the resistance, including leaders of Hamas and visionaries of Al-Aqsa Flood Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad al-Deif. Also present was a large red banner that said, “We are the soldiers, O Jerusalem, we are coming”. The prisoner exchanges so far mark the victory of the Palestinian resistance over the US-Zionist genocide, and the success of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in particular, which was carried out in part to free Palestinian prisoners.

The vast majority of prisoners released by Israel were released to Gaza, and 36 of the total had been serving life sentences. While prisoners release by resistance forces were treated well and given gifts—including a pair of gold earrings for one of the prisoner’s newborn daughter—Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel wearing a Star of David and text in Hebrew that said “We will not forget, we will not forgive”. Upon their release, the prisoners burned their uniforms in protest against their torture at the hands of the Israeli jailers.

A statement from Israel’s genocidal prime minister and lackey of US imperialism Benjamin Netanyahu groveled behind Trump’s threats of letting “all hell break loose” and IDF forces supposedly surrounding Gaza for the reasoning behind Hamas’s return to the ceasefire deal. Hinting at the resumption of open genocide, Netanyahu stated, “We are working in full coordination with the United States with the goal of rescuing all of our hostages – alive and dead – as quickly as possible, and are preparing with full force to continue, in all respects.”

While Trump threatened that Hamas must release all remaining prisoners of war by Saturday or else face the resumption of open genocide, he later qualified his threat stating that it was Israel’s decision to make. Netanyahu’s cabinet is meeting on Sunday to discuss what measures to take after Hamas released the scheduled 3 prisoners of war rather than all of the remaining ones at once. Cabinet member Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to “unleash hell on Hamas.” Despite the bombast and threats from the US and Israel, Hamas still has more than 70 prisoners of war, both dead and alive, and is prepared to enter the second phase of the ceasefire to secure the release of more Palestinian prisoners.

Photo: Prisoner of war Russian-Israeli Alexander Troufanov is released by Palestinian liberation forces. Retrieved from Palestine Chronicle, Credit: Al-Qassam military media.

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