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15-10-2025
GAZA STRIP: Hundreds of freed Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been welcomed with tears and screams of joy as they were released by Israel to be reunited with their families in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The release involved about 250 prisoners who had been convicted of crimes including murder and deadly attacks against Israelis and about 1,700 detainees from Gaza who had been held by Israel without charge.
As prisoners exited a Red Cross bus in Ramallah, many draped in traditional Keffiyeh scarves, they looked pale and gaunt, with some struggling to walk.
They were freed as part of an exchange in which 20 Israeli hostages and the remains of four deceased hostages were released by Hamas.
“He is ready to embrace freedom,” said Amro Abdullah, 24, who was waiting for his cousin Rashid Omar, 48, who was arrested in July 2005 and sentenced to life in prison by an Israeli court after being found guilty of murder and other crimes.
“I want peace,” Abudullah said. “I want to live a happy life, safe and peaceful, without occupation and without restrictions.”
It is thought about 100 prisoners were released into the West Bank, with many others set to be deported and a small number freed into East Jerusalem.
Israel made clear before the release process that it wanted to avoid the jubilant scenes that surrounded prisoners arriving in Ramallah during previous hostage deals, when large crowds waved Hamas flags.
Many families were reluctant to speak to the media, saying they had been warned against doing so by the Israeli military.
In Gaza, families gathered at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the hope of being reunited with their loved ones. A field hospital adjacent to the main hospital building was set up to receive them.
“This is a very beautiful feeling, happy, a day of joy,” said Muhammad Hasan Saeed Dawood, 50, who told media he was there to collect his son who he says was arrested by Israeli forces at a checkpoint.
“We call it a national holiday that our detainees are being released despite the cost of the war, the martyrs, the injured, and the destruction in Gaza.”
Khalil Muhammad Abdulrahman Al-Qatrous was also there to collect his son who he said had been detained for about three months.
“There is joy, and there is pain, and there is happiness and there is sorrow,” he said.
“We came here waiting for their release. We came here expecting them to arrive at 10:00 and now it is past 12:00, and we are still waiting, on edge.”
Ahead of the release in Ramallah, ambulances from the Palestine Red Crescent Society set up in preparation to treat any injured prisoners.
“The crying and the silence, this shows you how the families are feeling,” said Ibrahim Ifani, 23, a volunteer nurse for the organization.
“For all the people in Palestine, it’s a deep, deep emotion,” he said.
Multiple medics and family members said the prisoners who were released in Ramallah had faced beatings in recent days prior to their release.
The media cannot verify claims of mistreatment in Israeli prisons but Israel’s top court said last month that Palestinian prisoners were not being given adequate food.
The media has also previously reported on Palestinians being tortured in Israeli detention.
Aya Shreiteh, 26, from the Palestinian Prisoners Club said “their rights were violated in the most serious ways”.
“Most of the prisoners in the past year were subjected to deliberate starvation and exposure to illness,” she told media. “Their bodies are frail from starvation, and they’ve suffered from beatings.” (Int’l News Desk)
