As part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel will release Palestinians detained in Israeli jails in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages being held by militant group Hamas.
The truce is due to begin on Sunday, and so far there’s no final agreement on which prisoners will be released, partly because it is unclear how many hostages are still alive or will be freed.
There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, although that figure does not include people arrested in Gaza during the last 15 months of conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
These are some of the most prominent Palestinian figures being held in Israeli prisons.
Abdullah Barghouti
In 2004, Barghouti was sentenced to 67 life terms for his involvement in a series of suicide attacks in 2001 and 2002 that killed dozens of Israelis and five Americans.
The Israeli army said Barghouti prepared the explosive belts used in the attacks, including one on a Jerusalem Sbarro pizza restaurant in which 15 people were killed.
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Barghouti was born in 1972 in Kuwait and he has three children. In 1996, he moved his family to live in a village near Ramallah in the West Bank.
Ibrahim Hamed
Ibrahim Hamed was handed 54 life terms after being accused of planning suicide attacks that killed dozens of Israelis.
He had been on Israel’s wanted list for eight years before he was caught in 2006.
He was the top West Bank commander of the Hamas military wing, the Izz al Din al Qassam brigades.
While he was on the run, Israel detained his wife for eight months and demolished his house.
He has a degree in political science from Birzeit University near Ramallah.
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Nael Barghouti
Nael Barghouti has spent 44 years – two-thirds of his life – in Israeli prisons.
He has spent more time incarcerated by Israel than any other Palestinian and is known as the “dean” of Palestinian prisoners.
In 1978, he was jailed for taking part in an attack that killed an Israeli soldier in Jerusalem, and then was released in 2011 as part of an exchange between Israel and Hamas.
When he was released, he married Eman Nafe, who had spent 10 years in an Israeli jail accused of attempting to plan a suicide operation in Jaffa.
Hamas accused Israel of breaching the exchange deal when Barghouti was rearrested in 2014.
He was a member of the armed wing of the Fatah movement when he was given his life sentence in 1978 and later joined Hamas.
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Hassan Salama
Hassan Salama, who was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza in 1971, was convicted for orchestrating a series of suicide bombings in 1996.
The bombings killed dozens of Israelis and wounded hundreds more and Salama was sentenced to 48 life terms in prison.
He said the attacks were in response to the assassination of Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash in 1996, who was killed when a booby-trapped mobile phone exploded.
Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Barghouti is seen as a possible successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He made his name in the two uprisings waged by the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1987.
He was arrested in 2002 and later charged with orchestrating gun ambushes and suicide bombings, as he was sentenced to five life terms in 2004.
Fatah officials said he set up the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Fatah armed wing, on Yasser Arafat’s orders.
Ahmed Saadat
Ahmed Saadat was accused by Israel of ordering the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.
Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), took shelter at the Ramallah headquarters of Yasser Arafat.
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Under a deal with the Palestinian Authority in 2002, Saadat stood trial in a Palestinian court and was incarcerated at a Palestinian Authority jail, where he was held under international supervision.
However, the Israeli military seized him in 2006 when the foreign monitors withdrew.
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He was charged with involvement in a militant group, weapons dealing and deadly attacks but the justice ministry decided there was not enough evidence to charge him with Zeevi’s assassination.
He was sentenced to 30 years in jail in 2008.
