As the line of white buses drew closer to the West Bank city of Ramallah at dusk, their most notorious passenger stood at the window of one of the buses and waved. Skinny in his grey Israeli prison tracksuit, his head shaved, Zakaria Zubeidi lifted two fingers to make a peace sign and gestured at jubilant crowds.
The 49-year-old, a former leader of a Palestinian militant group jailed for attacks that killed several Israelis, was among 110 Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for three Israelis and five Thai nationals held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. The prisoners’ release was delayed by Israeli officials, who expressed dismay at the chaotic scenes in Gaza that accompanied the Israelis’ transfer to the custody of the Red Cross.
Twelve people were treated for gunshot wounds and teargas inhalation as they awaited the release of the detainees outside Ofer prison near Ramallah. AFP said 300 Palestinians waited outside a municipal complex nearby on the city’s outskirts, hoping to greet their loved ones amid delays.
“I am so tired. This isn’t fair,” Raghed Nasser, 21, told AFP as she waited for her father, Hussein, jailed 22 years ago while her mother was pregnant with her.
Those due for release included some of the oldest prisoners serving life sentences for violent crimes, among them Mohammed Falna from Ramallah, detained for 33 years, and Mohammad Abu Warda from Hebron, jailed 23 years ago for his role in two bus bombings in Jerusalem in 1996 that killed 45 people.
It also included 15-year-old Muhammad Lutfi Ali from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, the youngest of 30 minors freed.
Zubeidi’s uncle Jamal said tears came to his eyes when he received news that his nephew would walk free. “Our joy was mixed with sadness and severe pain, because of Zakaria’s son,” he said.
Zubeidi’s 21-year-old son Mohammed was killed when an Israeli drone struck the car he was riding in last September. Zubeidi’s brother Daoud died of his wounds from a shootout with Israeli forces three years ago.
All three of Zubeidi’s brothers were killed by Israeli forces during his time in detention. The former fighter once said he learned of his father’s death through a mosque loudspeaker while imprisoned in Jenin. Zubeidi turned to militancy after Israeli forces shot his mother in the Jenin refugee camp through a window.
To Israelis, Zubeidi is a notorious criminal jailed multiple times for attacks on civilians, including a 2002 attack on a polling station in northern Israel that killed six people, but to Palestinians he has folk hero status.
The former head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade took part in an audacious prison break from a maximum-security facility in 2021, two years into his sentence for alleged connections to shooting attacks close to the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Zubeidei, 49, was the most high-profile of the six Palestinian escapers, who were recaptured a week later in northern Israel and returned to prison.
The Zubeidi family were hoping to welcome him back to Jenin, where he became a director of the Freedom Theatre in the camp in 2008, declaring it his chosen method of fighting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and renouncing violence. But Jenin has been the scene of a major incursion by Israeli forces that began shortly after the Gaza ceasefire deal on Gaza came into effect.
The operation, which Israel has named Iron Wall, has since expanded to include military raids on the Tulkarem refugee camp. Ten Palestinians were killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Tammoun, near Tubas.
Israeli forces say they are targeting Palestinian militants across the West Bank, while the UN has raised concerns about “the use of unlawful lethal force in Jenin”. Israeli military bulldozers penetrated deep into the camp.
“The current situation is very difficult and I don’t think Zakaria will return to the camp right away, because of the invasion. He may stay in Ramallah for a few days,” said Jamal.
“Because of the invasion and the sad events in the camp, we can’t celebrate properly,” he said.
The future of Zubeidi’s Freedom Theatre remains in question, after an Israeli raid and the detention of its directors in December 2023. “After Zakaria’s return, the theatre could resume its activities if things calm down, and return to normal, but it doesn’t seem like that will happen,” said Jamal.
The Turkish news agency Anadolu said Israeli forces raided Zubeidi’s home in the Jenin camp last week in anticipation of his release, handcuffing his 14-year-old son and ordering the family not to celebrate when he returns.
