Today marks the eleventh anniversary of the Wafaa al-Ahrar prisoner swap deal in 2011, which included the release of 1050 Palestinian female and male detainees languishing in Israeli occupation jails in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured by Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza.

Palestinians across the occupied Jerusalem and West Bank cities and refugee camps are celebrating this anniversary as they are standing firm against the Israeli occupation forces and colonial settlers’ attacks and Judaization and division schemes.

Saluting the masterminds of this deal, who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their brothers and sisters, most notably the al-Qassam Brigades’ late senior commander Ahmad al-Jabari, and all freedom fighters, especially the ones who captured and held Shalit for more than five years, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas states the following:

First: Hamas hails all Palestinian detainees languishing in Israeli occupation jails and stresses that liberating them is a national duty and a top priority for Hamas that spares no effort to free them.

Second: We warn the Israeli occupation against its continued aggression against Palestinian detainees in its jails and call on human rights and humanitarian organizations to expose the occupation’s crimes against them.

Third: The Hamas movement reiterates that the policies of administrative detention, solitary confinement, psychological and physical torture, and deprivation of basic human rights will not succeed in breaking the detainees’ will to secure freedom and enjoy their legitimate rights.

Fourth: We call on the Palestinian people, Arab and Islamic Ummah and the free people of the world to show solidarity with the Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation jails and lend their support to them.

Hamas movement

Tuesday, 18 October, 2022