The head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Affairs Authority, Qadura Fares, said that 1,737 Palestinian prisoners will be released as part of the first phase of the prisoner exchange agreement and ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Fares said that the Israeli occupation is "determined to deport a number of prisoners who will be released," noting that "Israeli intransigence led to the postponement of the release of the leaders in the first phase."

He explained, in statements to Al-Arabiya channel on Friday evening, that "the prisoners who will be released in the first phase are 1,737 prisoners, including 296 with high sentences."

He pointed out that "the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released is linked to verifying the conditions of the Israeli prisoners in Gaza, and knowing the number of those alive and dead," which Hamas did not disclose, due to the conditions of genocide and massive destruction in the Strip.

Earlier on Friday, Hamas reported that its leader in the occupied West Bank, Zaher Jabarin, discussed with Fares the prisoner deal and arrangements for their release and receiving them in a manner befitting them.

The movement said in a statement that Jabarin, who also heads the Hamas Martyrs and Prisoners Office, received Fares, in the presence of the lawyer for the Prisoners Affairs Authority, Khader Shakirat, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, Hussam Badran, and the movement’s leaders, Mahmoud Mardawi and Jasser Barghouti, and that the meeting discussed “the latest developments in the deal and the prisoner exchange, and the arrangements for their release and reception, in a manner befitting their sacrifices and the sacrifices of our Palestinian people.”

Hamas did not specify the location of the meeting, but Fares had previously traveled to Doha last Monday.

"A glitch in the Israeli list"

It is noteworthy that earlier on Friday, the Israeli Ministry of Justice announced a list of 95 Palestinian detainees scheduled to be released tomorrow, Sunday, as a batch of prisoners who will be released in the first phase of the agreement.

However, the spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority, Thaer Shreiteh, confirmed in a statement later that “this list contains a clear defect in that it includes the names of released female prisoners, in addition to including the dates of birth of 10 prisoners without mentioning any additional information about them.”

Shriteh called on the deal's mediators in Qatar and Egypt to "put an end to these Israeli violations, and not give the occupation authorities any space to practice any violations that create confusion in the Palestinian street and among the prisoners' families."

It is noteworthy, in this context, that the second phase of the prisoner exchange agreement and ceasefire in Gaza relates to the return of complete and sustainable calm, the exchange of additional numbers of prisoners and detainees, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip.

The third phase focuses on starting a plan to rebuild Gaza over a period of 3 to 5 years, exchanging the bodies and remains of the dead held by both parties, opening all crossings, and allowing the free movement of people and goods.

All the measures of the first phase will continue to be implemented in the second phase of the agreement, as long as negotiations on the terms continue, with the guarantors of the agreement (Egypt, Qatar and the United States) exerting their utmost efforts to ensure the continuation of indirect negotiations until the two parties can reach an agreement on the terms of implementing the second phase.