Today, Saturday, two prisoners from the city of Jerusalem were released as part of the fourth batch of the first phase of the Flood of Freedom Deal between the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and the Israeli occupation, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

The two prisoners are among 18 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, along with 54 Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences, and 111 prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7, 2023, in exchange for the release of 3 Israeli prisoners.


One of the prisoners is Nizar Zidane, who suffers from several diseases, while the second is the writer and novelist Hossam Shaheen.

Nizar Zidane


One of the two released prisoners is prisoner Nizar Aziz Zidane “Abu Iyad”, from the village of Bir Nabala, northeast of Jerusalem. He is 62 years old and is considered one of the most prominent sick prisoners in the occupation’s prisons. He spent 22 years in prison.

Zidane was arrested in June 2002 and sentenced to 37 years in prison, on charges of establishing resistance groups affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Zidane married the teacher and educator, Raf’a Zidane, and they had four children before he was arrested from his home at the height of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and after that began his journey of illness, pain, and medical neglect in captivity.

According to Palestinian reports, a swine flu injection he was given in captivity in 2009 caused a stroke that weakened the movement of the left side of his body, in addition to chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and a herniated disc, and most of his teeth were extracted after parts of his throat were removed.


Hossam Shaheen


The second Jerusalemite prisoner is Hussam Zahdi Shahin (52 years old), from the town of As-Sawahra ash-Sharqiya, southeast of Jerusalem, who was arrested in January 2004 from Ramallah, when he was 32 years old.

Shaheen was sentenced to 27 years in prison, of which he served 20 years. He was denied the opportunity to bid farewell to his father, who died in 2016, and his mother died in early 2024, just a year before he was released in the deal today.

Shaheen was arrested for the first time when he was a student at the age of 15. He was active in the Fatah student youth and was considered one of its most prominent leaders. He also worked in the Arab Journalists Association in Jerusalem before his recent arrest.

After his arrest, Shaheen was subjected to harsh interrogation that lasted for two months. He participated in the 2017 Dignity Strike, which lasted for 43 days, after which he was punished with solitary confinement for 32 days. In October, he underwent surgery in captivity, under harsh conditions, and his health condition was kept secret, even from his family members.

Shahin obtained a BA in Political Science and an MA in Israeli Regional Studies from within his captivity. He also published his novel “Zaghroudat al-Finjan” in 2015, and “Letters to the Moon: Fragments of a Journey” in 2020, which was a collection of letters he wrote to the daughter of his captive friend.

Shaheen won many awards for his literary contributions, most notably the first prize in literature in 2009 from the National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, and was then chosen as the cultural personality of Jerusalem.