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Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners

Family members waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners follow developments Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, after receiving news that Israel has delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for Saturday, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Family members waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners follow developments Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, after receiving news that Israel has delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for Saturday, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
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Israel Delays Release of Palestinian Prisoners

Family members waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners follow developments Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, after receiving news that Israel has delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for Saturday, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Family members waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners follow developments Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, after receiving news that Israel has delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners scheduled for Saturday, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Israel said early Sunday the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is delayed “until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies” at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza.

The statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office came as military vehicles that normally move in advance of the buses carrying prisoners left the open gates of Ofer prison, only to turn around and go back in.

The release of 620 Palestinian prisoners had been delayed for several hours and was meant to occur just after six Israeli hostages were released on Saturday. It was meant to be the largest one-day prisoner release in the Gaza ceasefire’s first phase.

Israel’s announcement abruptly put the future of the truce into further doubt.
The Palestinian Authority’s commission for prisoners’ affairs confirmed the delay “until further notice.” Associated Press video in the West Bank showed prisoners’ families, waiting outdoors in near-freezing weather, apparently dispersing. One woman was shown walking away in tears.

Five of the six hostages freed Saturday had been escorted by masked, armed militants in front of a crowd — a display that the UN and Red Cross have criticized as cruel after previous handovers.
The Israeli statement cited “ceremonies that demean the dignity of our hostages and the cynical use of the hostages for propaganda purposes.” It was likely a reference to a Hamas video showing two hostages who have yet to be released watching a handover in Gaza on Saturday and speaking under duress.
The six were the last living hostages expected to be freed under the ceasefire's first phase, with a week remaining in the initial stage. Talks on the ceasefire’s second phase are yet to start.
The six included three Israeli men seized from the Nova music festival and another taken while visiting family in southern Israel during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the 16-month war in Gaza. The two others were held for a decade after entering Gaza on their own.
Five were handed over in staged ceremonies.

The 620 Palestinian prisoners meant to be freed include 151 serving life or other sentences for attacks against Israelis. Almost 100 would be deported, according to the Palestinian prisoners' media office.
A Palestinian prisoner rights association said they include Nael Barghouti, who spent over 45 years in prison for an attack that killed an Israeli bus driver.
Also meant to be released are 445 men, 23 children aged 15 to 19, and a woman, all seized by Israeli troops in Gaza without charge during the war.

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Shiny and Deadly, Unexploded Munitions a Threat to Gaza Children

Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File
Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File
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Shiny and Deadly, Unexploded Munitions a Threat to Gaza Children

Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File
Many casualties are children desperate for something to do or searching through the rubble. Eyad BABA / AFP/File

War has left Gaza littered with unexploded bombs that will take years to clear, with children drawn to metal casings maimed or even killed when they try to pick them up, a demining expert said.

Nicholas Orr, a former UK military deminer, told AFP after a mission to the war-battered Palestinian territory that "we're losing two people a day to UXO (unexploded ordnance) at the moment."

According to Orr, most of the casualties are children out of school desperate for something to do, searching through the rubble of bombed-out buildings sometimes for lack of better playthings.

"They're bored, they're running around, they find something curious, they play with it, and that's the end," he said.

Among the victims was 15-year-old Ahmed Azzam, who lost his leg to an explosive left in the rubble as he returned to his home in the southern city of Rafah after months of displacement.

"We were inspecting the remains of our home and there was a suspicious object in the rubble," Azzam told AFP.

"I didn't know it was explosive, but suddenly it detonated," he said, causing "severe wounds to both my legs, which led to the amputation of one of them."

He was one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning home during a truce that brought short-lived calm to Gaza after more than 15 months of war, before Israel resumed its bombardment and military operations last month.

For Azzam and other children, the return was marred by the dangers of leftover explosives.

'Attractive to kids'

Demining expert Orr, who was in Gaza for charity Handicap International, said that while no one is safe from the threat posed by unexploded munitions, children are especially vulnerable.

Some ordnance is like "gold to look at, so they're quite attractive to kids", he said.

"You pick that up and that detonates. That's you and your family gone, and the rest of your building."

Another common scenario involved people back from displacement, said Orr, giving an example of "a father of a family who's moved back to his home to reclaim his life, and finds that there's UXO in his garden".

"So he tries to help himself and help his family by moving the UXO, and there's an accident."

With fighting ongoing and humanitarian access limited, little data is available, but in January the UN Mine Action Service said that "between five and 10 percent" of weapons fired into Gaza failed to detonate.

It could take 14 years to make the coastal territory safe from unexploded bombs, the UN agency said.

Alexandra Saieh, head of advocacy for Save The Children, said unexploded ordnance is a common sight in the Gaza Strip, where her charity operates.

"When our teams go on field they see UXOs all the time. Gaza is littered with them," she said.

'Numbers game'

For children who lose limbs from blasts, "the situation is catastrophic", said Saieh, because "child amputees require specialized long-term care... that's just not available in Gaza".

In early March, just before the ceasefire collapsed, Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza. That included prosthetics that could have helped avoid long-term mobility loss, Saieh said.

Unexploded ordnance comes in various forms, Orr said. In Gaza's north, where ground battles raged for months, there are things like "mortars, grenades, and a lot of bullets".

In Rafah, where air strikes were more intense than ground combat, "it's artillery projectiles, it's airdrop projectiles", which can often weigh dozens of kilograms, he added.

Orr said he was unable to obtain permission to conduct bomb disposal in Gaza, as Israeli aerial surveillance could have mistaken him for a militant attempting to repurpose unexploded ordnance into weapons.

He also said that while awareness-raising could help Gazans manage the threat, the message doesn't always travel fast enough.

"People see each other moving it and think, 'Oh, they've done it, I can get away with it,'" Orr said, warning that it was difficult for a layperson to know which bombs might still explode, insisting it was not worth the risk.

"You're just playing against the odds, it's a numbers game."