Gaza ceasefire deal: Hamas, Egypt and Qatar pushing for Marwan Barghouti's release
Imprisoned Palestinian leader tops list of political prisoners whose potential release is being discussed, three sources informed on talks tell MEE.
Marwan Barghouti on his way back to jail in September 2003 after appearing before a Tel Aviv court (Tal Cohen/AFP)
By Lubna Masarwa in Jerusalem and Rayhan Uddin and Dania Akkad in London
17 January 2025
Egypt and Qatar, alongside Hamas, are using "all means available" to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between the group and Israel, three sources informed on the negotiations have told Middle East Eye.
The long-imprisoned Palestinian political leader is on a list “of around one hundred senior Palestinian prisoners” being discussed ahead of the second phase of the truce deal, a source close to the negotiations said.
“Marwan alongside [a] few others are at the top of that list,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the details.
Hamas leaders told a second source that Barghouti's release was "the primary goal" for the group in the deal and that they believed they had the leverage to pressure the Israelis to do so, but that it would not be decided until the second phase of negotiations when the release of Israeli soldiers is also on the table.
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Major General Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, the director of Egypt's General Intelligence Services, have personally interceded to push for his release, they said.
"The Qataris and the Egyptians expressed a desire - an insistence, not a willingness - for Marwan to be released and therefore are insisting on his release through the deal by all means available to them," the source said.
A third source close to the negotiations said that if Israel releases any prominent prisoners, they will be sent abroad to either Egypt, Qatar or Turkey.
Barghouti's release is being watched closely among Palestinians who consistently say they favour him in polls above any other political figures in the event of a presidential election.
Awni Almashni, a senior Fatah official and a close friend of Barghouti's, told MEE: "For many in the Palestinian street, the release of Marwan might be the standard that decides the success or failure of this deal."
Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences, after Israel convicted him in 2004 of several counts of murder - charges he has long denied.
He offered no defence in his trial, refusing to recognise Israeli jurisdiction over Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Who is Barghouti?
Barghouti, born in the West Bank city of Kobar in 1962, was a prominent student organiser in Birzeit University in the early 1980s, joining the Fatah political faction.
In 1987, he was deported by Israel to Jordan, from where he was part of Fatah’s senior leadership abroad. It was only after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 that Barghouti returned to Palestine.
He became secretary general of Fatah the following year, and was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996.
He remained an important ally of Yasser Arafat, Fatah's leader and the first president of the Palestinian Authority until his death in 2004.
When Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Fatah, carried out a number of attacks during the Second Intifada in March 2002, Israel arrested Barghouti and accused him of organising the attacks.
While belonging to Fatah, Barghouti is considered to have good relations with its political rival Hamas, and has campaigned for unity among Palestinian factions.
After the 7 October 2023 attacks, Barghouti, like many other political prisoners, was injured in attacks by prison authorities and not given medical treatment.
In an interview last year, his son, Arab Barghouti told MEE his father had also been moved to several prisons in a bid to humiliate him.
But he said that his father's spirits had remained high and the family remained "very positive" that he would be released. "It's time for him to be back among the Palestinian people," Arab Barghouti said at the time.
Sources told MEE last May that the Palestinian Authority (PA) officials asked Gaza mediators to exclude Barghouti from any prisoner swaps over concerns that his release would threaten the leader of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
A poll in September conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research found that the 64-year-old topped the list of leaders Palestinians would want to succeed the 88-year-old Abbas.
Almashni, who met Barghouti after the Oslo Accords and worked with him for seven years within Fatah, said Barghouti has topped polls for the past 10 years.
"The only person that enjoys the consensus from the left to Hamas to Islamic Jihad to very big parts of Fatah, though not the entirety of Fatah, to the normal people is Marwan Barghouti," Almashni said.
He also said he thought Barghouti would salvage the Fatah movement which has been dogged by criticisms of corruption and stagnant leadership for years, though acknowledged there were a small group within the movement who deem him unfit.
"This is a very, very small and permeable minority, and I think that the Palestinian people have had their say on the matter," Almashi said.
"I think that the Palestinian people deserve a leader with the wisdom and resilience and culture of Marwan Barghouti."
In addition to Barhgouthi, there are understood to be prominent individuals from across the Palestinian political spectrum on the list of prisoners whom Hamas wants released.
Analysts have speculated that others include Abdullah Barghouti, a relative of Marwan and former commander in Hamas' armed wing, Palestinian Front for the Liberation Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmad Saadat and Hassan Salameh, another Hamas military wing commander.