Double bitterness… when the occupation declines to release a “life-long” prisoner policy

Nablus- Twenty years have passed since the family of the Palestinian prisoner Raed Abu Siris (47 years old) was waiting for a glimmer of hope for his release from the occupation prisons, until they experienced that reality a few days ago, after reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, and the start of the prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.

As talk about the deal began, social media sites and media circulated the names of the prisoners intended to be released, especially those with life sentences and high sentences. They numbered 250 prisoners, in addition to 1,718 prisoners from the Gaza Strip, in exchange for the release of 48 living and dead Israeli prisoners held by the resistance in Gaza.

Throughout 4 days of talking about the agreement to stop the war and the exchange deal, the Abu Sris family, who lives in Balata camp near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, lived in anxiety and tense anticipation, awaiting confirmation of the actual release of their son.

Hope connection

Finally, the family’s anticipation cut off a call that prisoner Raed was allowed to make from inside his prison, and he informed them that he would be among those released in that deal, and that they should prepare to receive him, but “without any signs of joy or celebration” in implementation of the orders of the occupation intelligence and its army.

This communication was reinforced when the Israeli occupation army stormed Raed’s family home the next day, tampered with its contents, and threatened them not to hold any demonstrations of joy. They even removed his pictures from the walls and erased the drawings and supportive slogans.

In the wake of fear and hope, the family remained waiting for the release, which “the Israeli occupation squandered at dawn last Monday, the scheduled date for the release of the prisoners, after it removed his name from the list of prisoners intended to be released,” says his sister, Salma Abu Siris.

She added to Al Jazeera Net, which visited her at her home in Balata camp, that she was the first to know about the news that was abuzz with the social networking sites, as the occupation decided to exclude her brother Raed, along with the prisoner Musa Zahran from the city of Ramallah, from the list of prisoners included in the deal.

The family of Palestinian prisoner Khairy Salama receives him with ululations and sacrifices after his arrival in the city #Nablus After his liberation as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the occupation and the Palestinian resistance#Al Jazeera_Live pic.twitter.com/woIShzpmdu

– Al Jazeera Mubasher (@ajmubasher) October 14, 2025

Raed’s messages

Like a thunderbolt, the news struck Salma and the prisoner’s family, who replaced her joy with sadness, her laughter with tears, and her anxiety increased for her prisoner son, who had no news of him after the occupation’s decision, and whether “he is being beaten and tortured at the hands of the jailers,” according to his sister’s fears.

In the city of Nablus, which won the liberation of 24 prisoners as part of the last deal, the Balata camp, where Raed comes from, received a good number of them, and most of the freed people were those who knew him and lived with him in various prisons, and they conveyed his message to his family after he was excluded from the deal, to “not be sad and to keep hope alive, and to support the families of the released prisoners and share with them their joy of liberation,” as she said. Selma.

His sister adds, “Raed says that despite the sadness that befell him, he did not lose hope, and that stopping the war and genocide in Gaza is more important than his freedom.”

In 2006, Raed Abu Siris was arrested and subjected to a harsh Israeli investigation, during which he suffered various types of torture, until the occupation sentenced him to life imprisonment (100 years). The Israeli intelligence rejected the ruling and appealed against him, so he was later transferred to “life imprisonment.”

During his imprisonment, Raed lost his parents, two of his sisters, and other daughters and sons of his small family, which, like the rest of the prisoners’ families, has not been able to visit him since the outbreak of the war on Gaza more than two years ago.