Around 150 Palestinian prisoners and 50 civilians detained in Gaza are to be released over four days under the Israel-Hamas deal.
Israel has freed 39 women and children prisoners after Hamas freed 13 civilian prisoners in exchange as part of a Qatar-brokered deal that includes a four-day truce in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered Friday in anticipation outside Ofer prison, where Israel had transferred those due to be released, while others gathered in Palestinian towns.
At 8:00 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT), two International Committee of the Red Cross buses were seen leaving Ofer.
According to the AFP news agency, 28 prisoners were released in the occupied West Bank, and 11 others were brought to East Jerusalem, according to the NGO Palestinian Prisoners Club.
Marah Bakeer, who was among those released in Jerusalem, said she was informed this morning that she would be leaving the prison.
She told Tel Aviv Tribune that police carried out a DNA test and told her she would not be allowed to celebrate her release.
“I’m a little nervous and stunned; I can’t believe I’m missing,” she said.
“The years in prison were difficult,” Bakeer said. “But I have a strong personality…and faith in God.” The continued support of her family helped her overcome the “difficult times” of her eight years in detention, she added.
Feride Najeh, who was among the prisoners released in Beitunia, told Tel Aviv Tribune she was “very happy” with the deal.
“We haven’t eaten anything since this morning,” said Najeh, who was serving a three-year sentence. “They took us away violently and didn’t let us take our belongings. »
“I am very happy with this agreement. I would like to thank the people of Gaza for their resistance.
Thirteen Israeli captives, including dual nationals, were released as part of the Israel-Hamas agreement.
At least 10 Thai nationals and one Filipino were released under a separate arrangement, according to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, which negotiated the separate deal.
The Red Cross confirmed the release of the 24 civilians held captive in Gaza.
Under the Israel-Hamas deal, a total of 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons and 50 civilian prisoners held by Hamas are to be released over a four-day period that will see a break in fighting in Gaza.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Charles Stratford, reporting from outside Ofer prison, said Israeli forces fired volleys of tear gas into the gathered crowd.
Among those gathered at the prison, a woman Tel Aviv Tribune spoke with said she was from Tulkarem, a town near the border with Israel to the west.
Along the way, she was “stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and interrogated at length,” Stratford said, “highlighting the difficulties Palestinians face in terms of freedom of movement through the occupied territories.”
“Another father of a 17-year-old boy…said he was not going to celebrate the release because thousands of people were, in his words, ‘martyred’ in the run-up to the deal,” said Stratford. this again highlights the mixed emotions here.
Around 8,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, 3,000 of whom have been detained over the past seven weeks amid increasing Israeli raids in the West Bank.