Ramallah/Jerusalem, Jan 31 (IANS) Two buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released by Israel arrived in Ramallah, the West Bank, according to Palestinian sources.
According to eyewitnesses on Thursday, large crowds gathered to welcome them, chanting slogans and waving flags in celebration.
The families of the released detainees waited anxiously outside the reception area, with many breaking into tears when finally reuniting with their loved ones.
“This is a moment of both joy and pain,” said Samah Abed, a relative of a prisoner, expressing relief at the release but frustration over the continued conflict between Israel and Hamas.
An Israeli security official, speaking with Xinhua on condition of anonymity, said Israel completed the release of 110 Palestinian detainees earlier on Thursday as part of a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner-hostage exchange agreement with Hamas that took effect on January 19.
Buses transported about 66 Palestinian detainees from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank to Ramallah and 15 others to a detention centre in East Jerusalem, from where they were released. A total of 29 prisoners convicted of involvement in attacks against Israelis are to be deported to Egypt and other countries, said the official.
A photo circulating on social media showed Zakaria Zubeidi, a high-profile prisoner and former commander of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin, West Bank, making a V-sign on a bus.
Israel’s state-owned Kan TV News reported that before his release, Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency warned him that he would be “eliminated” if he resumed militant activities.
The release was delayed by about three hours on the instruction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was angered by “chaotic” scenes during Hamas’ earlier release of several of eight Israeli hostages in Gaza.
A further exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners is expected on Saturday, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing.
The first phase of the agreement, which is divided into three stages lasting 42 days each, calls for the gradual release of 33 Israelis — living prisoners and the bodies of the deceased — in exchange for between 1,700 and 2,000 Palestinian and Arab detainees.
The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
–IANS
int/khz
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