GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The mother of Majdi Yasseen, a Palestinian held in an Israeli jail, seemed more active than the passive women one usually sees in the protest tent outside the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza every Monday. Majdi's mother is chanting slogans demanding the release of prisoners. She told Al-Monitor that the announcement by Hamas that it had captured Israeli soldiers during the recent war on Gaza “brought life back to me,” because she is again hopeful of seeing her son, who was sentenced to 18 years and has already served seven.

Nearly 7,200 Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli jails, including 18 Palestinian women, serving various sentences and whose lives had deteriorated, according to Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club. “These prisoners are neither criminals nor dangerous terrorists," Fares told Al-Monitor. "Rather, they are fighters for freedom and against the occupation. The prisoners’ struggle and cause would not have emerged if it weren't for the occupation and the murder of Palestinians.”

After the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, announced that it had captured an Israeli soldier during this year's battle in Toufah, in eastern Gaza, Palestinian prisoners’ families hoped that the resistance would be able to conclude another prisoner deal similar to the one that resulted in the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in October 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinians.

According to Majdi’s mother, political options do not appear to be effective methods for obtaining the release of prisoners. She said: “Israel refuses to release our sons as part of the peace process, while the resistance was able to have the prisoners released most of the time when it succeeded in capturing an Israeli soldier. Thus, I side with the armed resistance’s option to get our sons released.”