602 Palestinians to be freed from occupation prisons, including 445 from Gaza
Gaza – 602 Palestinians held in Zionist occupation’s jails are scheduled to be freed on Saturday in exchange for six captives under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The detainees set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 from the 2011 deal who were re-arrested, and 445 prisoners from the Gaza Strip.
In the first phase of the agreement, the terms call for the gradual release of 33 captives, either alive or as deceased bodies, in exchange for between 1,700 and 2,000 Palestinian and Arab detainees.
In parallel, the Prisoners’ Media Office reported that the occupation forces raided the homes of Palestinian detainees who are set to be freed, threatening them not to hold welcome ceremonies.
According to media sources, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, is expected to be among the seventh batch of Palestinian detainees.
Abu Safiya gained prominence for his humanitarian role during the Zionist occupation’s genocide in Gaza and was one of the leading doctors who continued working under bombardment to save the wounded and injured.
The occupation forces arrested him in late December after storming Kamal Adwan Hospital, forcing him out at gunpoint after the hospital was destroyed and rendered non-operational.
His arrest sparked widespread condemnation, especially after an image circulated of him walking alone amid the ruins, dressed in his medical coat, surrounded by the occupation’s military vehicles—a scene that became an icon of Palestinian resilience.
According to his family, Abu Safiya was subjected to severe torture and starvation inside “Israeli” prisons, a claim confirmed by a lawyer who recently visited him.
The Palestinian Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights said its lawyer visited Abu Safiya at Ofer Prison located in Beitunia, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on Feb. 11 and documented evidence that he had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed the martyrdom of 48,319 Palestinians in the Zionist occupation’s genocidal war on Gaza, while 111,749 people have been wounded. The Government Media Office updated its toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
