Alwaght- Though the release of the Palestinian prisoners under the swap deal between Israel and Hamas has led to celebrations and rejoicing across West Bank and Gaza Strip and the Palestinians called it the "day of victory", reports suggest that in recent days various parts of West Bank have been scenes to fresh wave of raids by the Israeli forces who are launching a campaign of arrest primarily targeting the released prisoners.
Felesteen.news reported that Israeli forces launched a wave of raids and arrests across the West Bank and occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem) early Monday morning. The operations targeted numerous locations, including the towns of Beit Duqqu, Tubas, and Qabatiya, as well as various districts of Nablus and the villages of Azzun and Iymatin.
The raids involved forcibly entering homes, conducting property searches, damaging belongings, and rearresting formerly released prisoners.
In overnight raids across the West Bank, Israeli forces have rearrested several former Palestinian prisoners, including men who had spent years in Israeli jails before their release.
In Ramallah and Al-Bireh, during an incursion into the al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah, troops seized Jaber Abu Aliya, a freed prisoner who had previously served 22 years in Israeli detention. The forces also detained another freed prisoner, Attaf Na'asan, before releasing him after several hours of interrogation.
Further north, in the Qalqilya village of Saniriya, Israeli forces raided the home of two Palestinian brothers, Ahmed and Abdulaziz Younis, and took them into custody. Local sources identified the detainees as brothers of Uthman Younis, a freed prisoner who was previously exiled to Egypt.
This wave of arrests is part of a broader campaign. Just two days earlier, on October 19, Israeli forces detained six Palestinians in the Nablus district, including former prisoners Zahi al-Kosa and his brother Abdullah al-Kosa.
These incidents follow a pattern. On September 26 in Jenin, troops arrested Mohammed Adnan Abu Al-Hija from the town of Yamon, who had previously served an 11-year sentence. Other freed prisoners from Jenin, Iyad Jaradat and Sari Jaradat from Silat al-Harithiya, have also been rearrested.
Media reports and Palestinian institutions allege that Israeli security agencies, particularly the Shin Bet, are waging an intense pressure campaign against freed prisoners.
In a recent report, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Nahar cited freed prisoners from the West Bank revealing that Shin Bet agents had threatened them and their families before their release. The agents explicitly forbade them from giving media interviews, holding celebratory gatherings, or returning to political activity.
The sister of one freed prisoner told the newspaper that "before the [prisoner exchange] deal was finalized, Shin Bet officers contacted and threatened us again, stating that meeting or speaking with journalists would make them targets for rearrest or death. The occupation army also came to our homes hours before the release to reiterate the threats and confirm we would not appear in the media."
One freed prisoner, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, stated: "They threatened that if our families celebrated our freedom or conducted any interviews, they would prevent us from seeing our families... Today, anyone with a smartphone is under surveillance. We can be closely monitored here, and they might even try to kill us."
Confirming this claim, Modhafar Dhoghan, the director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club in Nablus commented to Al-Nahar about the threats against the prisoners and their families.
"Israeli forces stormed the homes of Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, threatening their families with reprisals if they celebrated a reported prisoner exchange deal. Troops raided the residences of 98 prisoners convicted to life terms, explicitly warning relatives against distributing sweets, flying Palestinian flags, or displaying celebratory banners. Most significantly, they ordered families not to speak with any media, Palestinian, Arab, or international, about the agreement.
The arrest and pressure campaign targeting the released prisoners comes as after the swap deal, reports talked about abuser and torture and murder of the Palestinian prisoners in drumhead court-martial executions and theft of body organs of the deceased Palestinians. The reports are disclosing to the world atrocities taking place behind the walls of the Israeli prisons.
Indeed, this wave of pressure, arrests, and exile targeting freed prisoners is not new; it has become a standard procedure in the regime's security approach to prisoner exchange agreements with the Palestinians.
The Israeli security apparatus has re-arrested about 70 prisoners freedunder a deal with Tel Aviv on June 18, 2014 and extended sentences of 50 others, mostly those serving life sentences.
Footprints of Abbas and Palestinian Authority in the arrests
Amid a wave of arrests targeting the West Bank, a particularly sensitive issue is inflaming public opinion: the active collaboration between Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces and the Israeli army.
This coordination was starkly illustrated in Jenin on Monday, when PA security forces arrested Mahmoud al-Dabai, a freed prisoner wanted by Israeli forces. The arrest was carried out during the PA's own operations in the city's refugee camp, located in the northern West Bank.
Further reports from local sources in Nablus detail that Palestinian security forces detained Ahmed Khalil Hafez Abu Ghadib, a 57-year-old former prisoner. Witnesses reported that he was forcibly removed from his vehicle and assaulted near the municipal service complex before being taken into custody.
The backlash is growing. In the city of Salfit, families of political detainees, including the family of Abdullah Younis and the brothers Abdulrahman and Musab al-Bashar, held a protest rally in front of the governor's headquarters.
In response to these revelations, the Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners in the West Bank issued a statement expressing deep concern over the escalating arrests of freed prisoners by the PA's security apparatus. The committee, in its Sunday statement, condemned these actions as part of a "revolving door policy" between the prisons of the Israeli occupation and those of the Palestinian Authority.
The statement also alleged that PA security agents arrested freed prisoner Musab Ghawzeh from Tulkarm after raiding his home, assaulting his family members, and transferring him to an undisclosed location.
Ghawzeh was released from Israeli prisons only a week ago under deal between Hamas and Israel, with his body still bearing marks of torture and starvation.
The statement condemns these measures as a "blatant violation of human rights and an affront to the dignity of freed prisoners and their families."
The committee further emphasized that such actions "align with the objectives of the occupying regime to break the will of the prisoners and undermine their steadfastness."
Holding the Palestinian Authority fully responsible for Ghawzeh safety, the political prisoners' families committee demanded his immediate release and an immediate halt political arrests.
Behind the scenes of treason: Two strategic calculations
The PA leaders, on top of them Mahmoud Abbas, are certainly seeking their own agenda behind this notorious cooperation with the Israeli occupation.
First, this move can be seen as a fearful response to internal threats against the PA and its leadership. Freed prisoners, particularly prominent and popular figures, are not just ordinary detainees; they are living political and symbolic assets for the resistance movements. The entry of these figures into the West Bank's political sphere could:
- shift the balance of power in favor of the resistance movements, strengthening the discourse of struggle over the discourse of negotiation.
- challenge the position of Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah movement, increasing the likelihood of a more popular, alternative leadership emerging.
- subject the PA's power structure and conciliatory approach to fundamental doubts.
For example, Nael Barghouthi, known as "Abu al-Nour", was one such individual. He was not released in the 1985 prisoner exchange deal but was freed in 2011 in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, only to be rearrested in 2014. Having spent 42 years in prison, he holds a Guinness World Record as the world's longest-serving Palestinian prisoner and comes from the renowned and militant Barghouthi family. Although he began his activism with Fatah, upon his release in 2011 he joined Hamas.
Marwan Barghouthi is another prominent figure in the Palestinian national movement. Leaked information indicated he was on Hamas's list of demands for a prisoner swap, but the PA, by warning the Israelis, prevented his name from being included in the exchange. Barghouthi has been imprisoned since 2002 and is serving five life sentences plus 40 years. The Israeli authorities accuse him of founding the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and participating in the First and Second Intifadas.
Second, there is a strategic calculation for return to centrality. It appears that Abbas, by continuing this cooperation, is engaged in a high-stakes gamble. Although the Sharm El-Sheikh summit and the Trump administration's "20-point plan" showed no real signs of revising the unilateral policies of Israel and the US, Abbas seems to hope that by sustaining security coordination, he can convince the Israeli regime and the US that the PA is a reliable partner for administering Palestinian areas. This cooperation is key to repositioning the PA at the center of American plans for the administration and future reconstruction of Gaza. By leveraging pressure from Arab countries, Abbas aims to secure this role for himself.
This strategy is practically a political suicide for the PA. In its most fundamental level, this cooperation with Israel is a betrayal of the Palestinian people's cause. When a Palestinian institution acts against the freed prisoners, who are in the Palestinian political and social culture are the symbols of resistance and victims of occupation, not only it turns its back to one of the most sacred entities symbols of fight against occupation, but also destroys its pillars of legitimacy among people.
This action has a clear message: The priority of the PA is the security of the Israeli occupation not the security and dignity of the under-occupation Palestinian nation. This issue has already widened the gap between the government and highlighted the PA as a guardian of the Israeli occupation's interests in the eyes of the public opinion.