Prisoners concerned over next phase of swap deal

Prisoners detained in Israel have expressed concerns that long-term detainees might be excluded from the captive swap deal, in a letter to the Palestinian Authority. In October, Israel agreed to release over 1,000 prisoners in a deal with Hamas to free an Israeli soldier held in Gaza. On Oct. 18, Israel freed 477 detainees, and 550 are yet to be released. In a letter sent to the Ministry of Detainee Affairs in Ramallah on Tuesday, prisoners noted that many long-term and sick detainees were excluded from the first stage of the deal, minister Issa Qaraqe said. Prisoners wrote that 57 prisoners serving sentences of more than 20 years, 127 prisoners jailed before the Oslo Accords in 1993, 45 prisoners with chronic diseases and nine female detainees were not included in the first phase of the release. They expressed concern that the second release of detainees would exclude "long serving prisoners." Qaraqe recently called on the Egyptian government -- which mediated the prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas -- to push for the release of prisoners detained before 1993. Ammar Mardi, a prisoner serving a life sentence, said that if prisoners sentenced to life were excluded then the "whole deal was a fiasco." Lina Jarbouni said she and the eight other women in Israeli jails were "looking forward to the correction of the big error Hamas' negotiators made when they finalized the deal." Jarbouni said she and other female detainees were shocked when they learned that they were not included in the first phase of the release. Hamas said its agreement with Israel included the release of all female prisoners, but while 27 women were freed, nine remained in Israeli prisons.