As Israel, Hamas, and international mediators convene in Egypt to negotiate the terms of the ceasefire deal, four high-profile Palestinian prisoners, Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Sa’adat, Ibrahim Hamed, and Abbas al-Sayed, are expected to appear at the top of Hamas’s demand list for release.
The following is a brief overview of who these terrorists are and what their involvement in criminal activities and offenses was.
Marwan Barghouti
Convicted of five murders, Barghouti is a senior West Bank Fatah member and the former chief of its Tanzim militant faction who played a key role in the Second Intifada.
In April 2002, he was arrested in Ramallah during Operation Defensive Shield and was later convicted in an Israeli civilian court of five counts of murder and other offenses. Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences on top of added-on years.
Between April and May 2017, while leading a large prisoner hunger strike, the Israel Prison Service released footage that it said showed Barghouti secretly eating in his cell, a clip his supporters said was fabricated.
Barghouti remains one of the most popular Palestinian politicians, according to multiple surveys, and he has frequently been mentioned in negotiations as a top Hamas demand.
Ahmad Sa’adat
This Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) chief is linked to the assassination of then tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001.
Sa’adat became the secretary-general of PFLP in October 2001 after the IDF killed his predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa.
Israel holds Sa’adat responsible for planning Ze’evi’s murder that same year.
After spending years under Palestinian Authority custody in Jericho, with Sa’adat being monitored by British and American wardens, the overseers withdrew, and the IDF raided the prison in March 2006, arresting Sa’adat. In 2008, an Israeli military court sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
Ibrahim Hamed
As Hamas’s operations chief in the West Bank, Hamed served as a senior commander in the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades during the Second Intifada.
Arrested in Ramallah in May 2006, Hamed was convicted of orchestrating a series of major bombings, including the management and deployment of suicide bombers.
He was the architect behind the Café Moment bombing in Jerusalem that killed 11 people and the Hebrew University cafeteria bombing in which nine people were murdered, among other mass-casualty attacks.
Hamed received 54 consecutive life sentences for 46 murders.
Abbas al-Sayed
Sayed, a senior Hamas operative from Tulkarm, was the mastermind of the 2002 Passover Park Hotel massacre in Netanya.
He helped plan the Seder night suicide bombing, which claimed the lives of 30 people and wounded over 160 others.
The terrorist was convicted in the Tel Aviv District Court and sentenced to 35 life sentences. Israel has insisted repeatedly on excluding him from previous prisoner exchange deals.