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Palestinian hostages: who cares about their fate?

Viktor Mikhin, February 02, 2025

Currently, a large number of Palestinian hostages are being held in Israel, which is of great importance for the Palestinian liberation project. Leading Palestinian lawyer Raji Surani gives an interview to the world media, shedding light on the situation of the Palestinian hostages.

Palestinian hostages

Israeli genocide against the Palestinians

All over the world, from the International Court of Justice to important international human rights organizations, everyone agrees that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, which cannot be justified by anything. According to official figures, about 47,000 Palestinians have been killed and at least 100,000 injured as a result of the conflict. Among the latter is the largest group of disabled children in history.”>
All Israeli media, politicians, and diplomats refer to the biblical times when someone once granted them this land

Since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into force on January 19, corpses have continued to be removed from the rubble in Gaza, and the death toll is growing every day. The three-step agreement includes the gradual release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, a cease-fire, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from unspecified parts of Gaza. The agreement entered into force on January 19, and two prisoner exchanges have already taken place since then.

Israel has carried out a barbaric attack on a tiny Mediterranean enclave, throwing it back into the Stone Age. As a result of the bombing, about 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure was destroyed, depriving Palestinians of any hope of a normal life for many years to come.

Opinion of Raja Surani

According to Raja Surani, a prominent Palestinian human rights lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, the essence of the prisoner exchange is a distorted view of the genocide perpetrated by Israel out of revenge and malice. It is not as simple as it seems, he warned. “It is not about mathematics; it is about morality,” Surani said in an interview with global media.

Surani, now 71, left Gaza at the onset of the war, traveling from one European city to another before settling in Cairo. At that time, he was working with a legal team from South Africa, which successfully proved in the International Court of Justice that Israel had grossly and intentionally violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial body of the United Nations, recognized South Africa’s case as valid, stating in January 2024 that it would consider it. The review is expected to take several years. In November 2024, the International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of committing massive war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

During the Israeli onslaught against the Palestinians, which saw Gaza destroyed under the pretext of forcing the return of Israeli hostages, there was not a single mention of the Palestinians, who have been held captive by Israel since October 2023. “No one is talking about the 18,000-20,000 Palestinians from Gaza who have been forcibly removed by Israel since October 7, 2023. For 15 months now, we have not known if they are alive or dead, or where they are,” Surani said. This topic is taboo in the so-called democratic media of the West. If the US president cares about the fate of the hostages, it concerns only Israelis, and he does not even mention the Palestinians.

In June 2024, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, in his zeal, went so far as to call for a law allowing the mass execution of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. It doesn’t matter what they did, it doesn’t matter that there was no trial or investigation, just execute them and that’s it.

“Almost no attention is paid to the terrible conditions in which Palestinian prisoners are held: their torture, starvation, amputations, and lack of medical care from prison authorities; or, for that matter, when 11 Israeli soldiers raped a group of Palestinian prisoners. Instead, these rapists are glorified on Israeli television. This has been normalized and accepted,” Surani said. And there are hundreds and hundreds of such cases. Why does only Israel have the right to be outraged by the hostage-taking? Why aren’t the Palestinians allowed to do anything for the thousands of prisoners held by Israel? There is only one answer, and it lies on the surface: the United States has opened its military, political, and diplomatic “umbrella,” actively defending Israel, which is now allowed to do everything.

“The Palestinians are not subhuman. Our prisoners of war are at the forefront of the Palestinian struggle. They are the best representatives of our people, they sacrifice their fate, waging a legitimate struggle for self-determination and independence of our people,” said Surani. They are also not just “prisoners,” as many of them are leaders, such as Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti, Socialist leader Ahmed Saadat, and Hamas military commander Abdullah al-Barghouti. “They are part of our political and historical leadership. Thousands of them languish in Israeli prisons, and many are being detained again after their release. It never ends.” Only a few returned home, and the rest were detained without trial. Only a few returned home, and the rest were detained without trial.

Surani asked, “Why was Khalida Jarrar arrested?” He was referring to a well-known Palestinian political activist, socialist, and former MP who was detained after the October 7 terrorist attack and held in solitary confinement without trial for 15 months without charges. She experienced all the horrors of an Israeli prison and the constant bullying of the jailers before she was released as part of the first phase of the prisoner exchange.

A report by the Israeli human rights organization B’tsleem on the nature of administrative detentions from 2001 to 2024 shows a sharp and unprecedented increase in the number of Palestinians arrested by the Israeli authorities over the past three years and since the current far-right government came to power in 2022.

The group stated that the primary goal of the Hamas operation, which resulted in the capture of 251 Israelis on October 7, was to secure the release of these Palestinian detainees in exchange for them, as part of a prisoner exchange agreement.

New shocking data on Palestinian arrests

The Surani Palestinian Center for Human Rights is set to release a report in March, detailing the forced disappearances of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza during the ongoing conflict. According to the center’s director, the findings are “deeply disturbing.”

The report reveals that the number of Palestinians detained by Israel since October 7, 2023, has surpassed the official figure of 11,000. These individuals are currently being held in Israeli prisons.

Since the start of the conflict on October 7, 2023, a significant number of Palestinians have been forcibly disappeared. Among them are approximately 1,500 to 1,600 fighters who crossed into Israel and were not killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during the successful Hamas operation.

Furthermore, according to the Surani Center, Israel has detained 15,000 Palestinian workers from Gaza, all of whom had valid work permits. Only a few returned home, and the rest were detained without trial.

“In total, we are talking about more than 20,000 cases of enforced disappearances,” said Surani. He stated that under Israeli law, these individuals are considered “illegal combatants.” The law grants the Israeli military broad powers to detain any Gazan indefinitely without providing evidence to substantiate the charges.

“The enforced disappearance of people is a terrifying prospect anywhere in the world. Yet, I have never encountered this in Gaza during my entire 40-year career. However, we now find ourselves in a situation where thousands upon thousands of Palestinians from Gaza alone have been forcibly disappeared,” Surani said.

In their relentless pursuit of national independence from the Israeli colonial project, the Palestinians have never ceased fighting for the release of prisoners of war. Despite United Nations resolutions and more recently, the decision of the International Court of Justice, which demands that Israel end its “illegal occupation” of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, Israel blatantly denies, contrary to the obvious facts, that it occupies any Palestinian territory. All Israeli media, politicians, and diplomats refer to the biblical times when someone once granted them this land. Of course, with this approach, it becomes a challenging task to talk about the creation of a State of Palestine for the Palestinians for several decades.

 

Viktor Mikhin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, an expert on the Middle East

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