Hamas Demanding Release Of Six 'Archterrorists' As Part Of Peace Deal - Including Plotter Behind Suicide Bombing Campaign, Terror Cell Chief And Assassination Mastermind
Hamas has demanded the release of six Palestinian 'archterrorists' held by
Israel as part of historic
Gaza ceasefire talks.
Israel views these prisoners as terrorist masterminds who murdered
Israeli civilians and has refused to release them in past exchanges.
But it faces mounting pressure to end the war and bring back the remaining 48 hostages taken in Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack, around 20 of them believed to be alive.
Many Palestinians view the thousands of prisoners held by Israel as political prisoners or freedom fighters resisting decades of military occupation.
Israel fears history will repeat itself after it released senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a 2011 exchange. The long-serving prisoner was one of the main architects of the October 7 attack and went on to lead the militant group before he was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year.
The list of prisoners Hamas is demanding to be freed reportedly includes six archterrorists who are accused by Israel of being behind suicide bombing campaigns, political assassinations and widespread terror networks.
Marwan Barghouti
Founder of the Palestinian Fatah party and imprisoned since 2002, Barghouti is one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners whose release is being sought by Hamas.

The imprisoned political leader led street protests and diplomatic initiatives until 2002, when he was imprisoned by Israel on charges of involvement in deadly attacks that resulted in the deaths of five people.
Ahmad Sa'adat

The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small leftist faction with an armed wing, was accused of organizing the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, an ultranationalist who called for the mass expulsion of Palestinians.
Saadat and four PFLP activists directly involved in the killing were eventually arrested by Palestinian police.
Hassan Salameh
Hassan Salameh, a senior Hamas militant, was given 46 life sentences in 1997 stemming from the bombing of two commuter buses in Jerusalem and another attack that together killed and wounded dozens of people.
He led a series of revenge attacks after the assassination of Hamas’ chief bombmaker, Yahya Ayyash, in 1996.

Palestinian students hold a poster depicting Hassan Salameh during a West Bank demonstration in 2015
Abdullah Barghouti
The Kuwait-born Barghouti, with no direct relation to Marwan Barghouti, was a senior Hamas bomb-maker and commander during the 2000 intifada who was implicated in several notorious attacks on Israeli civilians, mainly in Jerusalem.
An Israeli court handed him 67 life sentences in 2004 — the longest sentence handed down in the country’s history — after he was convicted of attacks that killed 66 people, including five Americans, and wounded more than 500.

Pictured: Palestinian Abdullah Barghouti, a leading commander for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas in the West Bank, is escorted by Israeli police into the Magistrate's Court for a hearing in Jerusalem on June 20, 2012. Barghouti is currently serving 67 life-term sentences in Israeli prison
Now in his early 50s, he was convicted of making the bombs used in an attack at the Hebrew University in which five Americans and four Israelis were killed, a suicide bombing at a branch of the Sbarro pizzeria that killed 15 people, a suicide bombing at a cafe that left 11 dead and a triple bombing on Jerusalem’s Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall that killed 10.
Ibrahim Hamed
Ibrahim Hamed - the top West Bank commander of the Hamas military wing - was accused of planning suicide attacks that killed dozens of Israelis.
He was on Israel's most wanted list for eight years before he was captured in 2006.
Abbas al-Sayed
Abbas al-Sayed is a Hamas leader from Tulkarem sentenced to 35 consecutive life terms for masterminding the 2002 Park Hotel bombing in Netanya that killed 39 Israelis and injured 140 others.
Israel views these prisoners as terrorist masterminds who murdered Israeli civilians and has refused to release them in past exchanges.
www.dailymail.co.uk