Israa Al-Jaabis: Palestinian female detainee to be released in Hamas-Israel prisoner swap

When Hamas and Israel reached a Qatari/Egyptian-brokered “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and agreed on a prisoner swap deal, the name of prisoner Israa Al-Jaabis circulated on social media as one of the Palestinian female prisoners expected to be released from Israeli jails.

Jaabis, a 38-year-old mother, is among 300 Palestinian prisoners to be released under the prisoner swap after the pause in fighting entered into effect on November 23, according to a list of names of prisoners to be released on the official website of the Israeli Department of Justice.

The Jerusalemite detainee was born in the village of Jabal al-Mukaber, southern occupied Jerusalem. She was arrested in October 2015 for “attempting to kill an Israeli occupation policeman” after a gas cylinder in her car exploded in an accident 500 meters from a military checkpoint while she was returning to Jerusalem from Jericho. Although she was asking for help from the police personnel at the checkpoint when her car exploded and her body caught fire, she was left abandoned, with the burns caused by the accident covering 60 percent of her body. A few months later, Israel handed down an 11-year prison sentence against her.

Afterward, Jaabis was transferred to the Israeli Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, but the Israeli occupation authorities did not complete her treatment and transferred her to detention, according to the Palestinian Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs (PCPA).

According to testimonies of released female prisoners who were at the Hasharon Prison to Palestine’s WAFA news agency, Jaabis was suffering difficulties in fulfilling her basic daily needs due to the burns on her body to the extent that she was not able to write or eat. Some of her fingers fused together due to the extreme heat of the explosion, while other fingers were reduced to stubs.

It was reported in 2018 that she was in dire need of more than eight surgical operations to be able to practice even part of her life normally, including an operation to separate what remained of her fingers. She was also in need of another operation to grow skin to cover the exposed bones, the PCPA added.

Several campaigns have been launched by her family members in 2017 and 2021 to release her due to her health conditions. She is now detained in Damon Prison. 

Jaabis managed to write her book “Mawjouaa” (Hurt) during her detention, which was displayed last month at the 13th Palestine International Book Fair.