FOR Yusif Abu Maria, the looming Gaza hostage deal is especially personal. Not only is his son on a list of candidates of imprisoned Palestinians to be freed by Israel: But it would be a replay of Abu Maria’s own release from jail almost 20 years ago.
The Qatari- and Egyptian-mediated agreement approved by Israel in the early hours of Wednesday will pause the war between Israel and Hamas militants for a few days, enabling the entry of more humanitarian aid to the ravaged Gaza Strip.
In the lull, Hamas will free 50 children and women who were among some 240 people taken to Gaza during its October 7 killing spree in south Israel. In return, 150 female inmates or teenage males will be released from Israeli security prisons.
A list of 300 candidate prisoners published by Israel’s Justice Ministry includes Ubay Abu Maria, who was taken into custody this year, four months after his 18th birthday, and accused of belonging to the armed Islamic Jihad militant group.
The length of the list suggested Israel was preparing for the possible disqualification of some prisoners by its Supreme Court, where victims of Palestinian attacks can file challenges, or that future prisoner-for-hostage swaps were being prepared.
But Ubay’s pining father sounded confident of a homecoming.
“Of course I’m very happy because I’ve lived through this myself,” said Yusif, who in 2004 was among 400 prisoners freed in return for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers held by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“Ubay will be in my arms, among my family, my brethren, his siblings, and in his mother’s lap. We say that, God willing, all prisoners – not just Ubay, but also prisoners who have been in jail for 40 years, 30 years – should be released,” he told Reuters, saluting their “great and brave resistance” to Israel.
Many Israelis see the Palestinian prisoners as dangerous foes whose freedom would raise risks of new and widespread violence.
Yusif, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, said he had spent several stints in Israeli jails on charges of organising a potential armed attack. He confirmed Ubay’s association with the more hardline Islamic Jihad.
“It was at school where met some people from Islamic Jihad. It was his decision and I supported his decision. I didn’t have any objection,” Yusif said in the family home in the occupied West Bank.
Uday has an arm injury, his parents said, compounding their worry about conditions that have been toughened up in the prisons, where inmates have clashed with guards at times.
The Prisons Service has reported the death in custody of five inmates since October 7, four of them from apparent health complications. The fifth case is under investigation, the Prisons Service said.
“I feel just like any mother who has a wounded son in jail would,” said Yusif’s wife, Fida. “We hear a different rumour or a genuine report every day, things that break our hearts. So of course I’m very happy. God willing this will be concluded well.”
