Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, including at least two Hamas veterans from the West Bank occupied by Israeli, in exchange for three Israeli hostages that had been detained in Gaza.
Among these prisoners released on Saturday, 138 came from Gaza, including 111 orders after the attack led by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 which sparked the 15 -month war in Gaza.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel has undertaken to release more than 1,000 Gazans – including many detained during the Israeli invasion of the territory – provided they had not participated in the ‘Attack on October 7.
But some of the most eminent prisoners released on Saturday had come from the West Bank, including some who had been sorrows for life. Palestinians often consider prisoners as fighters of freedom against Israeli occupation.
Huge crowds of people praised the arrival of a bus from the Red Cross carrying prisoners released in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. The Israeli forces have descended in family homes of at least four of the men released in the West Bank of the hours before arriving there, warning their loved ones not to celebrate their freedom.
One of the prisoners whose family home was attacked was Jamal Tawil, a higher agent in Hamas in the West Bank, who had been imprisoned several times in recent decades to plan bomb attacks and other attacks on Israel .
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He was taken directly to Ramallah hospital after his release.
“He has trouble breathing and is very weak,” said his daughter, Bushra Tawil, a journalist and activist who was released in a previous exchange last month. “I was shocked when I saw him – he had been beaten on his head and other parts of his body until the last moments before his release.”
She said her family had been threatened with arrest if they were publicly celebrating her return.
The Israeli army did not comment on the complaint. But for years, Israeli security services have discouraged or interrupted family events celebrating the liberation of activists, saying that they provoke disorders and glorify terrorism.
Israel has been particularly asserted in the abolition of celebrations for prisoners published as part of the current cease-fire agreement, fearing that they help strengthen the popularity of Hamas.
Another released Hamas activist, Iyad Abu Shkhaydem, was serving 18 perpetuity sentences, in part to plan the bombings of two buses in the central city of Israel of Beersheba which killed 16 people in 2004, for which he was sentenced by a military court.
Israeli forces had nicknamed him “the engineer” of a Hamas cell in the city of West Bank of Hebron, according to local media. He was arrested after a 40 -day man hunt.
Mr. Abu Shekhaydam, 50, who is married to four children, ended his secondary studies and obtained a diploma in psychology in prison, according to the Prisoners Association, a group for the defense of rights which provides legal support to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
The house of Shadi Barghouti, another prisoner released on Saturday, was also searched, according to family members. Mr. Barghouti was serving a 27 -year sentence to plan or participate in attacks, according to the Israeli Ministry of Justice.
He had ride in prison with his father, Fakhri Barghouti, now 70, who was sentenced in the 1978 murder of a bus driver, but released in 2011.
Fakhri Barghouti was waiting at the Ramallah Cultural Palace when Shadi Barghouti arrived on a bus from the prison to oce nearby. It was the first time that the father and the son have met outside the prison since 1978, When Shadi Barghouti was 11 months old. They were both in tears, but smiling, while Shadi Barghouti knelt when he saw his father.
Other prisoners arriving at the cultural center, appearing fragile and thin, only wore gray combinations bearing the logo of prisons authority. Some wore worn plastic slippers while others were barefoot.
According to the Palestinian red crescent.
Islam Hamad, of Naplus, had to be transported by family members. Her mother melted in tears when she saw her condition, including a injured hand. She was too overwhelmed to speak to a journalist.
