Palestine / Israel - Children as Trading Cards? - The Prisoner Exchange is an Opportunity to Focus on the Children held by Both Sides : Tom McDermott

There was very good news this evening that Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on a hostage release, a 4 day pause in fighting, and a major increase in the numbers of trucks allowed to enter Gaza of trucks carrying relief supplies, water and fuel.  Under the deal Hamas will release 50 women and child prisoners held on their side and Israel will release 150 women and children from jails and prisons on their side.  The prisoner releases could begin by Thursday.

It is unfortunate that discussions of the long standing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians so often come down to a listing of numbers killed, wounded, and arrested, with little discussion of the human impacts obscured by those numbers.  Every human tragedy comes down to one person and one family.  Yet like it or not, in this sort of war, numbers count.

Whether you call them 'hostages' or 'prisoners', both sides see them as a means of pressuring the other side into concessions.  It was not surprising therefore to read that the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association reports that the numbers of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel has risen from 4,400 before October 7th to around 7,000 today.  

I will drop the term 'hostage' and simply speak of 'prisoner'. That said, anyone captured by foreign armed forces and detained across a border is not just a 'prisoner', but also a 'hostage.  In the case of children, they are child prisoners.  Both sides hold child prisoners and for both sides those prisoners are hostages intended to pressure the other.  

For UNICEF and others concerned with children, news of a possible exchange of prisoners should highlight the plight of children taken prisoner by Israel, along with the plight of children taken as prisoners by Hamas.  

Most of the Palestinian children have been taken from the occupied West Bank and held in Israeli jails and prisons under 'administrative detention' and eventually tried under Israeli military law.  Note that this set of military laws differs significantly from Israel's own civil law, especially with regard to the age at which a child can be held and tried.  Many children are held for only 24 hours or so, but on average children are held by the Israeli forces for an average of 10 months without trial.  Adults are often held without trial for 18 months.    

Among the 7,000 or so Palestinians held in Israel, Addameer reports that 618 are children - 205 of them arrested in the West Bank since October 17th.  Most are teenagers, but least 17 of these are children under the age of 15.  Israel is detaining around 700 people from Gaza since Israel invaded.  It is not clear how many children are among the new detainees.  Click here for more about the Palestinian child prisoners.

Israel believes that Hamas is holding around 236 Israeli prisoners. It is not clear how many of these are civilians, but a significant number of soldiers are thought to be among those held.  What we do know is that at least 36 are children - some of whom are very young, including at least one infant of age 10 months and others ranging in age from 3 to 12.  Click here for more about the Israeli child prisoners.

As Catherine Russell reiterated in a recent tweet, "No child should be a hostage."  I would add that, "No child should be a prisoner taken from his or her country by armed forces of another nation."  And, "no child should be treated as a trading card."

Here is an article outlining what is known so far about the prisoner exchange.  Let´s hope that the exchange is only the first step in ending the war and that it will lead to far wider releases of prisoners.

 From Axios

The Israeli government and Hamas announced separately on Tuesday they have agreed to a Qatar-mediated deal in which the militant group will free dozens of Israeli hostages in exchange for a four-day pause in fighting in Gaza and the release of dozens of Palestinians held in prisons in Israel.

Why it matters: The deal, once implemented, will be the biggest diplomatic breakthrough and the first major pause in fighting since the war began.

Details: In the first phase of the two-phase deal, Hamas is expected to free at least 50 Israeli women and children held in Gaza, while Israel is expected to release about 150 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children over the four-day pause.Israel will allow around 300 aid trucks per day to enter Gaza from Egypt. More fuel will also be allowed in during the pause in fighting, according to an Israeli official.
In the second phase, Hamas could release dozens more women, children and elderly people. The Israeli government said it would extend the pause for every additional 10 hostages released.
It is unclear when the deal will be implemented.

The Israeli Cabinet approved the deal after more than five hours of discussions.
What they're saying: "After difficult and complicated negotiations over long days we announce that we have arrived at an agreement on a four-day humanitarian truce that was reached through Qatari and Egyptian efforts," Hamas said in a statement.The Israeli government stressed after the Cabinet approved the deal that it was committed to bringing all hostages home.

"The Israeli government and the IDF will continue the war in order to bring all the hostages back, finish destroying Hamas and make sure there can be no threat to Israel from Gaza," the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday that he had spoken to President Biden in recent days and asked him to help improve the deal. "It was improved so that it will include more hostages for a lower cost," Netanyahu said. "President Biden helped and I thank him for that."

Between the lines: Three ministers of the far-right Jewish Power Party were the only members of the Israeli Cabinet to vote against the deal.Three ministers of the far-right Religious Zionist Party who threatened before the meeting to vote against the deal changed their position after hearing from the heads of the security services who recommended approving the agreement, a source with knowledge of the meeting said.

What's next: Over the next 24 hours, the names of the Palestinian prisoners set to be released will be made public so that Israeli citizens can appeal to court against their release, according to an Israeli official who briefed reporters earlier Tuesday.Israel will not release Palestinian prisoners who have been convicted of killing Israelis, the official said.