As of Thursday, November 30th, a temporary ceasefire is in place between Israel and Hamas. The truce allows for an exchange of hostages who have been held in Gaza by Hamas since October 7th for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel, and for desperately needed humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip. At this point, 69 hostages have been released by Hamas and 150 Palestinian detainees have been released by Israel.

Palestinian prisoners being released have been called terrorists, with an Israeli imposed ban on Palestinian families publicly celebrating the return of their loved ones who are being freed in the deal. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “expressions of joy are equivalent to backing terrorism.” But who are the Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons being released in this deal, and on what grounds are they being detained? 119 of the freed Palestinian prisoners are children. And more than half of them have never been charged with a crime.

This episode of Unsettled, originally published in February of 2022, covers Israel’s system of military courts and administrative detention of Palestinians. Milena Ansari, international advocacy officer at Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, talks about the case Hisham Abu Hawash, a Palestinian administrative detainee who went on hunger strike for 141 days, while he was held in prison by Israel without charges or a trial.

(Photo: Addameer)

Milena Ansari: “Detention without trial or charge”