Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Dying to be free: releasing Palestinian captives is not a numbers game
Despite the enormous price paid in retaliation, the principle of freeing those held in Israeli prisons goes to the heart of reasons why Palestinians resist in the way they do, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Palestinian Fairuze Salameh is greeted after she was released from prison by Israel, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, early Wednesday Nov. 29, 2023

THE whole thing may appear to be an exercise in futility, but there is a reason why Palestinians are keen on releasing their prisoners, despite the heavy price they continue to pay for their freedom.

It may seem rational to ask the question: what is the point of releasing a few Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons, if the price of doing so is the death of over 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza?

In fact, even if all Palestinian prisoners — numbering about 7,000 — are released, they would not even amount to 30 per cent of the total number of Palestinian dead and missing, so far, in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
ENOUGH SAID ACT NOW: Bodies of members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, killed in an Israeli strike in 2023 have recently been recovered from the rubble are given a proper burial in Gaza City on August 4 2026
Gaza Genocide / 14 August 2026
14 August 2026

Given the recent rejection of peace proposals by Israel the world must provide an immediate and resolute response to force accountability on Gaza, argues RAMZY BAROUD

A Palestinian man takes the last look at the bodies of members of the al-Amasi family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, July 21, 2026
Gaza / 29 July 2026
29 July 2026

by Ramzy Baroud

ISRAEL-MADE FAMINE: Starving Palestinians at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, May 27 2026
Features / 11 June 2026
11 June 2026

While international attention focuses on ceasefire frameworks, Israel is openly advancing plans for a permanent expansion of its control over Gaza, writes RAMZY BAROUD

STATE SANCTIONED: A violent mob of Israeli settlers in balaclavas attack and beat up 67-year-old Basim Saleh Yassin in the northern West Bank village of Deir Sharaf on January 8 2026
Middle East / 17 January 2026
17 January 2026

RAMZY BAROUD looks at how entire West Bank communities have been shattered, their social and physical fabric deliberately dismantled by Israel to enable its formal annexation