Israel Re-arrests Released Prisoner Under Administrative Detention Seven Months After Exchange Deal, Rights Group Says

Israeli soldiers raided a home in Tulkarm on 21 August and took Bakr Khreiwesh, 35, into what Israel calls administrative detention, a mechanism that allows indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial. He had been free for less than a year.

Khreiwesh was released in October 2025 as one of 1,968 Palestinian prisoners freed in the most recent exchange deal with Hamas, after serving six years of a nine-year sentence. His wife, Israa Nasrallah, told The New Arab that during his months of freedom, Israeli intelligence officers repeatedly summoned him for interrogation, including during Ramadan and the Eid holidays.

"They made sure he felt he was always being watched, signaling that his release under the deal didn't guarantee he wouldn't be arrested again," Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah said Israeli intelligence also pressured the landlord renting the family's apartment, threatening that the army would detain him if he did not evict them. The family was forced to move in with relatives, she said.

Khreiwesh is now held in Naqab prison, according to his wife. His lawyer has visited him only once since the arrest. Khreiwesh later asked the family not to send the lawyer again, Nasrallah said, after learning that prisoners are beaten following legal visits. She said he has developed scabies from unsanitary conditions and was already suffering chronic back and knee pain from beatings he endured before his initial release.

The New Arab reported it contacted several other former prisoners for comment; none agreed to speak, citing fear of re-arrest.

A documented pattern, rights group says

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said in a statement that Israel has re-arrested, harassed, or interrogated at least 80 former prisoners released under previous exchange deals, measures the group said prevent former detainees from resuming normal life and compound the suffering of families separated by deportation or exile.

The group linked the re-arrests to a broader escalation in prison conditions since the war in Gaza began, citing mistreatment, starvation, denial of medical care, and solitary confinement, and pointed to severe physical and psychological harm among those released, particularly from Gaza.

Helmi Al-Araj, director of the Hurriyat Center for Civil Rights, told The New Arab that Israel has never fully adhered to the terms of prisoner exchange agreements, pointing to the 2011 Shalit deal, under which more than 50 released prisoners were later re-arrested, some held for years afterward.

About 3,985 Palestinian prisoners have been released across three exchange deals since November 2023: 240 in the first, 1,777 between January and February 2025, and 1,968 in October 2025, according to Palestinian Prisoners' Club figures cited by The New Arab.

The specific allegations concerning Khreiwesh's current treatment and the broader 80-case tally rest on the account of his wife and the Prisoners' Club statement; Occupation Watch has not independently verified prison conditions or interrogation records.