Joy turned to devastation for many after Israel added a twist to its release of almost 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians as part of the ceasefire deal. It’s sending 154 into exile, refusing to let them back into Gaza or the occupied West Bank.
Published On 13 Oct 202513 Oct 2025
Share
Among the first batch of freed prisoners were prominent rivals of former President Joko Widodo jailed during his term.
Indonesia has begun releasing hundreds of inmates from prison, including people convicted of political offences, after parliament approved the first stage of President Prabowo Subianto’s wide-ranging clemency plan, reportedly aimed at building national solidarity.
A first group of 1,178 inmates were to be released on Friday after House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad and Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas announced late on Thursday that Subianto had signed a Presidential Decree granting amnesties.
Barely two months after he took office in October, Subianto – the former son-in-law of Indonesian dictator Soeharto – surprised the nation by saying he planned to grant clemency to some 44,000 inmates nationwide, most of them imprisoned for political reasons, as a way to help unify the country.
Law Minister Agtas said political prisoners and inmates with mental and chronic health illnesses, older people, juveniles and those convicted of blasphemy or insulting the country’s leader will be prioritised in the pardons.
Among those released on Friday were prominent rivals of former President Joko Widodo who were jailed during his term, including Hasto Kristiyanto, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the country’s only formal opposition party.
A former ally of ex-President Widodo who later became a harsh critic, Kristiyanto was sentenced last week to three and a half years in prison for bribery in a 2019 legislative seat appointment scheme.
Released on Friday evening from his cell at the anti-Corruption Commission’s detention centre in South Jakarta, where he had been held since February, Kristiyanto told a cheering crowd, “We must learn from this incident.”
Agtas said parliament also approved an end to criminal proceedings against former Trade Minister Tom Lembong, also a onetime Widodo ally who broke with him during the 2024 presidential election to support political rival Anies Baswedan.
Lembong was sentenced to more than four years in prison in July for reportedly abusing his authority as minister by improperly granting sugar import permits.
“Both [Kristiyanto and Lembong] have demonstrated service to the nation, and our priority now is to strengthen the unity of the nation,” Agtas said.
Six independence activists from Indonesia’s restive West Papua region, serving prison sentences for treason, were also released.
Agtas said authorities plan to submit a second list of 1,668 inmates for release to parliament in the near future.
An international deal has been struck that has allowed Venezuelans deported from the United States and imprisoned in El Salvador to return to their home country, in exchange for the release of American citizens and political prisoners held in Venezuela.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that 10 Americans had been released as part of the deal.
“Thanks to @POTUS’s [the president of the United States’] leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom,” Rubio wrote on social media.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele also celebrated the deal, saying that all of the Venezuelan deportees detained in his country have been “handed over”.
“We carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages,” Bukele, a US ally, wrote in a statement on social media.
“These individuals are now en route to El Salvador, where they will make a brief stop before continuing their journey home.”
Bukele has previously indicated he would be open to a detainee swap to release political prisoners in Venezuela. He and US President Donald Trump have long been critics of their Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, a socialist who has led Venezuela since 2013.
“This operation is the result of months of negotiations with a tyrannical regime that had long refused to release one of its most valuable bargaining chips: its hostages,” Bukele added.
The Venezuelan government confirmed it had received 252 citizens deported from the US and held in El Salvador.
In addition, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told the media that seven children separated from their parents during deportations had also been sent from the US to Venezuela.
Friday’s deal is the latest example of the complex, international negotiations underpinning President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportation in the US.
Such a deal has long been rumoured between the three countries.
But the arrangement raises questions about how Trump’s mass deportation push might be used as leverage for other foreign policy priorities. It has also reignited scrutiny about the treatment of individuals deported from the US to third-party countries they have no relation to.
Venezuela has protested the deportation of its citizens from the US to El Salvador, where more than 200 people were sent to a maximum-security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) in March.
To facilitate that transfer, President Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a wartime law only used three times prior — to allow for the swift removal of foreign nationals.
The US leader argued that undocumented migration into the US constituted an “invasion” of criminals from outside countries.
His use of that law, however, has faced ongoing legal challenges about its constitutionality.
Critics also have pointed out that El Salvador has faced criticism for alleged human rights abuses in its prisons, including beatings, torture and sleep deprivation.
The CECOT prison is part of Bukele’s own efforts at mass incarceration. It opened in 2023 with space to hold up to 40,000 people.
Trump argued that deporting the 200-plus Venezuelans was an urgent matter because they belonged to gangs like Tren de Aragua. Bukele echoed that accusation on Friday, saying that all the Venezuelan deportees were “accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua”.
But critics point out that some of the men had no criminal record whatsoever.
Lawyers representing some of the deported Venezuelans have since issued complaints alleging that their clients were targeted based on their clothing choices or tattoos, which US immigration officials then used to falsely tie them to gangs.
The Trump administration has also maintained that deportations to third-party countries like El Salvador are necessary for immigrants whose home countries will not accept them.
Venezuela has, in the past, refused to accept deportees from the US. Maduro and Trump have had a notoriously rocky relationship. In 2020, Trump even placed a $15m bounty for information that could lead to Maduro’s arrest.
But rather than return to the “maximum pressure” campaign that defined his first term as president, Trump has instead sought negotiations with the Venezuelan government during his second term.
In response, the Maduro government has signalled that it is willing to accept Venezuelan deportees from the US.
For example, it hosted US special envoy Richard Grenell in Caracas in late January, a trip that resulted in the release of six Americans held in Venezuela. The Maduro administration also released a detained US Air Force veteran in May, following another meeting with Grenell.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that Grenell’s mission was to ensure “all US detainees in Venezuela are returned home”. It is unclear how many remain in the country.
The US government, however, continues to deny the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency. Maduro’s contested election to a third term in 2024 — marred by allegations of fraud — has further weakened his standing on the world stage.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has contended with controversies of its own. Last week, The New York Times reported that the Trump White House had “botched” the agreement to free Americans in Venezuela, after Grenell and Secretary of State Marco Rubio proposed rival deals.
The Times said that Rubio had proposed a trade: American prisoners for the Venezuelans held in El Salvador. But Grenell had offered different terms that would allow Venezuela to continue its trade relationship with the oil giant Chevron, a major boon for its beleaguered economy.
The result was reportedly confusion and uncertainty.
Furthermore, the Trump administration has faced scrutiny at home for its apparent unwillingness to repatriate immigrants who may have been unjustly deported.
In June, District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to ensure the Venezuelan men held in El Salvador received due process in the US. In his decision, Boasberg pointed out that their swift removal in March prevented them from contesting both their deportations and the allegations that they were gang members.
That court order, however, has been put on hold by a federal appeals court in Washington.
Friday’s deal also raises questions about previous Trump administration claims that it was unable to release the deported men from the CECOT prison. Trump officials have long argued that, while in El Salvador, the deportees lie beyond the reach of the US government.
El Salvador’s President Bukele has also claimed he had no power to allow the men’s return. In an Oval Office appearance in April, Bukele spoke to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man briefly held in CECOT after he was wrongfully deported in March.
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele told a reporter.
Media reports indicate that El Salvador received $6m in exchange for holding people deported from the US.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the DOGE team that had been led by Elon Musk to examine Social Security records that include personal information on most Americans.
Acting by a 6-3 vote, the justices granted an appeal from President Trump’s lawyers and lifted a court order that had barred a team of DOGE employees from freely examining Social Security records.
“We conclude that, under the present circumstances,” the Social Security Administration, or SSA, “may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the court said in an unsigned order.
In a second order, the justices blocked the disclosure of DOGE operations as agency records that could be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The court’s three liberals — Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — dissented in both cases.
“Today, the court grants ‘emergency’ relief that allows the Social Security Administration (SSA) to hand DOGE staffers the highly sensitive data of millions of Americans,” Jackson wrote. “The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now — before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE’s access is lawful.”
The legal fight turned on the unusual status of the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency. This was a not true department, but the name given to the team of aggressive outside advisors led by Musk.
Were the DOGE team members presidential advisors or outsiders who should not be given access to personal data?
While Social Security employees are entrusted with the records containing personal information, it was disputed whether the 11 DOGE team members could be trusted with same material.
Musk had said the goal was to find evidence of fraud or misuse of government funds.
He and DOGE were sued by labor unions who said the outside analysts were sifting through records with personal information that was protected by the privacy laws. Unless checked, the DOGE team could create highly personal computer profiles of every person, they said.
A federal judge in Maryland agreed and issued an order restricting the work of DOGE.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, an Obama appointee, barred DOGE staffers from having access to the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans. But her order did not restrict the Social Security staff or DOGE employees from using data that did not identify people or sensitive personal information.
In late April, the divided 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to set aside the judge’s order by a 9-6 vote.
Judge Robert King said the “government has sought to accord the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) immediate and unfettered access to all records of the Social Security Administration (‘SSA’) — records that include the highly sensitive personal information of essentially everyone in our country.”
But Trump Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer appealed to the Supreme Court and said a judge should not “second guess” how the administration manages the government.
He said the district judge had “enjoined particular agency employees — the 11 members of the Social Security Administration (SSA) DOGE team — from accessing data that other agency employees can unquestionably access, and that the SSA DOGE team will use for purposes that are unquestionably lawful. … The Executive Branch, not district courts, sets government employees’ job responsibilities.”
Sauer said the DOGE team was seeking to modernize SSA systems and identify improper payments, for instance by reviewing swaths of records and flagging unusual payment patterns or other signs of fraud.
The DOGE employees “are subject to the same strict confidentiality standards as other SSA employees,” he said. Moreover, the plaintiffs “make no allegation that the SSA DOGE team’s access will increase the risk of public disclosure.”
He said checking the personal data is crucial.
“For instance, a birth date of 1900 can be telltale evidence that an individual is probably deceased and should not still receive Social Security payments, while 15 names using the same Social Security number may also point to a problem,” he said.
May 21 (UPI) — A U.S. Air Force veteran detained in Venezuela has been released, according to his family and Trump administration officials.
Joseph St. Clair was freed Tuesday, according to Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump‘s special presidential envoy for special missions and the newly appointed president of the Kennedy Center.
On his X account, Grenell posted pictures of himself and St. Clair boarding a small airplane.
“Joe St. Clair is back in America,” he said.
Grenell on Tuesday met with Venezuelan officials in an unidentified “neutral country to “negotiate an America First Strategy” he said.
Scott and Patti St. Clair, Joseph St. Clair’s parents, confirmed their son’s release from Venezuelan detention in a statement.
“This news came suddenly, and we are still processing it — but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude,” they said.
Details about St. Clair’s release were not immediately clear.
According to the James Foley Foundation, St. Clair was working in the food services industry in South America when his family lost contact with him in November. In February, the U.S. State Department told his family — who had not heard from him in months — that he had been wrongly detained by Venezuela, the foundation, which advocates for U.S. hostage prevention and release, said.
St. Clair’s release comes after Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats from Washington, called on Trump earlier this month to become personally involved in pressing for the release of the Air Force veteran.
“Each day he is held, it prolongs his suffering, and the suffering of his friends and family,” they said in the letter.
In February, the Trump administration secured the release of six Americans who had been wrongly detained in Venezuela for several months.
A United States citizen has been transferred to the US after being held for nearly six months in Venezuela.
The family of US Air Force veteran Joseph St Clair confirmed his release on Tuesday, following his detention in November of last year.
“This news came suddenly, and we are still processing it, but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude,” St Clair’s parents, Scott and Patti, said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, later explained on social media that he had met with Venezuelan officials on the Caribbean island of Antigua to negotiate the release.
Grenell credited St Clair’s freedom to Trump’s “America First” political platform.
“Joe St. Clair is back in America,” he wrote. “I met Venezuelan officials in a neutral country today to negotiate an America First strategy. This is only possible because [Trump] puts Americans first. ”
Citing anonymous sources familiar with the negotiations, the Reuters news agency reported that Grenell discussed St Clair’s case on Tuesday with Jorge Rodriguez, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly and an ally of President Nicolas Maduro.
Reuters and another news agency, Bloomberg, both reported that a deal was struck to extend a licence for the US oil company Chevron to operate in Venezuela by 60 days.
The Trump administration had previously announced it was revoking the licence in February, on the basis that Venezuela had not upheld its commitment to fair elections. The licence was due to end on May 27.
Any extension will likely need the approval of the US Department of State and the US Treasury.
The South American country relies on oil as the pillar of its economy. But since the mid-2010s, Venezuela has experienced an economic crisis that has pushed even basic supplies like food and medicine beyond what some families can afford.
That, combined with alleged political repression, has prompted an exodus of nearly 7.9 million people out of Venezuela, according to the United Nations.
In 2023, Venezuela committed to electoral reforms under the Barbados Agreement, a deal that the US applauded. Then-US President Joe Biden loosened restrictions on Venezuela’s oil industry in the aftermath of the agreement.
But Venezuela’s presidential election on July 28, 2024 was widely criticised for its lack of transparency. While Maduro and his allies claimed he had won a third term, the electoral authorities did not provide any proof of his victory.
Instead, the opposition coalition published voting tallies it said proved that its candidate had won by a landslide. That prompted widespread protests and a deadly crackdown from law enforcement.
During his first term in office, from 2017 to 2021, Trump had pursued a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Maduro’s government, even offering a $15m bounty for information that led to the Venezuelan leader’s arrest.
But critics have pointed out that Trump may need Venezuela’s cooperation to carry out his goal of “mass deportation” during his second term.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has signalled a willingness to negotiate with Maduro. In late January, he even sent Grenell to meet with Maduro in person in the capital of Caracas. Part of Grenell’s directive was to ensure all detained Americans in the country were returned home.
As Grenell left the country, he revealed he was returning with six Americans who had previously been imprisoned in Venezuela.
In March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio estimated that nine Americans remained in Venezuela’s custody.
Venezuela, for its part, has started to accept deportation flights from the US, although in the past it has refused to accept migrants removed from the US.
St Clair’s family has said that the military veteran was a language specialist who was seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in South America.
Hamas has released Edan Alexander, a dual United States-Israeli national and soldier, as it seeks to revive ceasefire negotiations and an end to Israel’s punishing blockade on the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Monday evening that it had facilitated the soldier’s transfer. An image was released showing Alexander with Hamas members and a Red Cross official.
Hamas said it had released Alexander as a goodwill gesture towards US President Donald Trump, who is visiting Arab Gulf nations this week.
Fighting briefly stopped to allow for the handover after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would permit safe passage for the release.
“Edan Alexander, American hostage thought dead, to be released by Hamas. Great news!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“The government of Israel warmly welcomes soldier Sergeant Edan Alexander who has been returned from Hamas captivity,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
“The government of Israel is committed to the return of all hostages and missing persons – both the living and the fallen,” the statement added. Families of the captives have accused Netanyahu of putting his own political survival above that of the captives still held in Gaza.
In a statement, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric welcomed Alexander’s release while calling for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
“We are relieved that one more family has been reunited today. This nightmare, however, continues for the remaining hostages, their families, and hundreds of thousands of civilians across Gaza,” Spoljaric said.
Alexander’s mother reportedly arrived in Israel on Monday and was flown to the Re’im military base, where the two were expected to be reunited later in the evening, according to Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel.
Despite the release, Israel has made no commitment to a broader ceasefire. “There’s nothing in exchange, no release of Palestinian prisoners, no pause in the fighting,” Salhut said. “If there are going to be any sort of negotiations, they’re going to happen under fire,” Salhut added, referring to the Israeli government’s prevailing line.
Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, said Alexander’s release has spurred joy as well as frustration in Israel. “What we see is that what President Trump can do, Netanyahu is not able – or not willing – to do,” he told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.
The Israeli prime minister has faced widespread calls to end the Gaza war to secure the captives’ release but has said he plans to expand Israel’s offensive.
“Today is a crucial point,” Eldar explained. “Because the Israeli public is aware of the fact that if you want a deal, if you want your sons back at home, you can do it. But for that, you have to be a leader like President Trump and not like Netanyahu.”
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said there seems to be no change forthcoming in Palestinians’ daily suffering: “Palestinians are devastated. They’re exhausted. Palestinian families are unable to feed their children. They’re saying their children are going to bed hungry.”
“The IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] report issued today said 93 percent of Gaza’s population is living through acute food insecurity. This is because of the blockade that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip,” Khoudary said.
“Palestinians are asking, ‘What’s next? What is this release going to bring? Are there any positive negotiations? Is there any glimpse of hope of a ceasefire?’” she added.
And the bombardment continues, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people on Monday.
Humanitarian organisations have warned that Gaza is on the verge of mass starvation. The IPC reported that half a million Palestinians face imminent famine.
According to the IPC, 70 days after Israel blocked entry of essential supplies, “goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks.”
The head of the UN’s World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, urged immediate international action. “Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,” she said. “If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.”
Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, also issued a stark warning. “The risk of famine does not arrive suddenly,” she said. “It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked, where health systems are decimated, and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive.”
Hunger, she added, has become “a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip”.
Netanyahu and his hardline government remain committed to escalating the military campaign in Gaza.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key coalition partner, reiterated his position that the war must continue and humanitarian aid should be blocked from entering the territory.
“Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, claiming military pressure had compelled Hamas to release Alexander. Critics have countered that the release came about purely because of direct US contacts with Hamas.
Netanyahu met US figures, including Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee, on Monday. His office described the meeting as a “last-ditch effort” to push forward a captive-release deal before the fighting widens.
Huckabee said Trump and his administration “hope this long-overdue release” of Alexander “marks the beginning of the end to this terrible war”.
Israel plans to send a delegation to Doha on Tuesday for talks but made clear military operations would persist. “The prime minister made it clear that negotiations would only take place under fire,” his office said.