Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode, a special Friday Focus on the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

Tomorrow, another four hostages are set to be released from Gaza -- presumably women and presumably alive. Alongside the Israelis' release, however, up to 200 Palestinian prisoners could also be released, according to the current formula of 30 Palestinian prisoners for every civilian and 50 for every female soldier.

Rettig Gur takes on this complicated and emotional subject through looking at the history of terrorist hostage-taking and previous so-called exchanges of the abductees and Palestinian prisoners -- including those who were serving multiple life sentences.

We speak about the most memorable exchange of prisoners, which came in 2011 when captured soldier Gilad Shalit was released from Gaza as 1,027 security prisoners were freed from Israeli prisons. However, Rettig Gur postulates that the blueprint for that abduction came much earlier.

For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Convicted terrorists to be released are ‘an open wound’ for victims’ families

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Palestinians celebrate the release of some 90 prisoners set free by Israel in the early hours of January 20, 2025 upon their arrival aboard a Red Cross bus in the Palestinian West Bank town of Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

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