After spending more than two decades behind bars for his role in a deadly bombing, Bassem Khandaqji walked out of an Israeli prison this October not just as a free man, but as an acclaimed novelist. His story, which straddles tragedy, literary achievement, and the ongoing complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has captured the attention of readers and critics alike across the Middle East and beyond.
According to NPR, Khandaqji, now 41, was among nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered in late 2025. The exchange saw Israel free Palestinian prisoners and detainees in return for Hamas releasing the remaining living hostages captured during the militant group’s attack on southern Israel in October 2023—a moment that reignited violence and deepened wounds on both sides.
Khandaqji’s journey to literary fame began under the most unlikely circumstances. In 2004, at just 20 years old and in his third year at a West Bank university, he was arrested during the tumultuous days of the second intifada—a Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 marked by violence and fraught attempts at peace. He was convicted, along with two other members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), for planning a suicide bombing that killed three Israeli civilians at a Tel Aviv marketplace. The attack, carried out by a Palestinian teenager, wounded more than 30 others and left a deep scar on Israeli society.
Khandaqji was sentenced to three life terms in 2005. During his sentencing, he delivered a controversial address to the Israeli military court, drawing a parallel between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. “You are a victim who became a monster,” he told the judges, adding, “Let me say with sorrow and pain that on this land there are new Nazis who are leading their people to destruction.” The court dismissed his remarks as “delusional claims,” noting in their verdict, “no expression of remorse can be found in them.”
Yet, two decades later, Khandaqji’s reflections on his past have grown more nuanced. In an interview with NPR at a hotel in Cairo, where he was photographed just days after his release, he insisted that he never intended for civilians to be targeted. “From the beginning, I told my friends or my comrades in the cell of the PFLP … I don’t believe in targeting the civilians,” he said. “I told them we should attack just a military target. Checkpoints, camps, bases.” He went further, expressing a complicated sense of regret: “Did I mean … to send this suicide bomber to Tel Aviv to kill these people? No! I don’t believe in targeting the civilians. It was a horrible period. It was a complicated period. And if the history will return back, I will never use the same tools.”
Khandaqji’s time in prison became a crucible for transformation. Deprived of physical freedom, he found an outlet in words. He began writing novels—often in secret, smuggling his manuscripts out for publication. “That’s the most fascinating thing. I can’t write without this secrecy, without feeling that I am wanted [by] the jailer,” he explained to NPR. “I turned [into] a wanted man, and my words too, they want my words.”
His most celebrated work, A Mask the Color of the Sky, was written behind bars and tells the story of a Palestinian archaeologist who dons an Israeli identity to cross borders and explore forbidden worlds. The novel won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2024—often called the Arabic Booker prize, the region’s highest literary honor. The English translation is slated for release in March 2026, opening Khandaqji’s narrative to a broader audience.
At the award ceremony in Abu Dhabi, jury chair Nabil Suleiman praised the book for “intertwining the personal and political in innovative ways … with new narrative forms,” and for exploring “self-awareness and the awareness of the other.” Issa Qaraqe, the former head of the Palestinian national library and himself a former prisoner, noted that Khandaqji’s novel stands apart from typical Palestinian prison literature. “This book doesn’t directly address the prison experience like the majority of literature by Palestinian prisoners,” Qaraqe told NPR. “The book steps out of the prison and talks about Palestinian history and identity in confronting the Zionist and Biblical identity.”
Khandaqji’s approach to literature is deeply influenced by his experiences and his studies. While incarcerated, he earned a degree in political science by correspondence, focusing on Israeli studies. He now describes himself as anti-colonialist and envisions a shared future for Palestinians and Jews in a single state. “Unfortunately in Palestinian literature, there is no clear presence inside the Palestinian stories or novels of the other, of the Jews. … It’s a stereotype presence. It’s not talking about the true life … the Israeli, he’s a human, like us. He is not just a soldier,” he said. He also criticized Israeli literature for portraying Palestinians as villains, adding, “So I can’t treat the Israelis inside my text like that. I’m looking for a new ethic discourse.”
The hardships of prison life only sharpened Khandaqji’s resolve. After the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023, Israeli authorities confiscated the personal belongings of Palestinian prisoners, including pen and paper. Undeterred, Khandaqji wrote an entire novel in his head, inspired by his friend and fellow writer Walid Daqqa, who died of cancer in prison after being denied clemency. “It’s an amazing experience to write inside your head without any pen,” Khandaqji said. “I took my novel with me when I was released.”
Freedom, however, has come at a price. More than 100 prisoners released in the October 2025 deal—including Khandaqji—were banished to Egypt, barred from returning to their homes in the Palestinian territories. Some have found themselves isolated, far from family and community, with Israeli authorities reportedly preventing relatives from traveling to visit. “I’m so scared from the exile,” Khandaqji admitted. “Maybe the prison, it’s … easier for me.”
Despite this, Khandaqji has wasted no time in pursuing his literary and academic ambitions. He has appeared at book talks in Cairo, signing copies of his novel and engaging with readers. He plans to pursue a doctorate in Israeli studies, continuing what he calls his “project of writing, how to write an anti-colonial narrative inside the colonial context.”
As for reconciliation, the question lingers. Before his release, an Israeli investigator asked if he would ever speak with the families of those killed in the bombing he helped plan. “I told him, yeah, maybe in the future,” Khandaqji recalled. “Maybe I will call them.”
Khandaqji’s story is one of contradiction and transformation—a man once defined by violence, now seeking to redefine himself and his people through words. Whether his new chapter will bring healing or more controversy remains to be seen, but for now, his voice is being heard far beyond the prison walls that once confined him.