The Israeli occupation forces released, on Monday evening, the second batch of detainees from “Katziot” prison in the Negev to the Gaza Strip, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
More on the Prisoner Release Agreement and the first stage.
A Wafa news correspondent reported that 38 buses and 10 ambulances transported hundreds of released prisoners to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.
This release comes as Donald Trump and Arab leaders meet in Sharm Al-Sheikh, Egypt, to determine the future of the Palestinian people.
On the ninth of this month, US President Donald Trump announced that an agreement had been reached to implement the first phase of his plan to achieve peace in the Middle East, which he announced on the twenty-ninth of last September. It stipulates ending the war on the Gaza Strip, withdrawing the occupation from it, the entry of humanitarian aid, and the exchange of prisoners.
Thousands of Palestinians gathered in Khan Younis to welcome the released prisoners, including relatives and friends. A large number of the released prisoners were transferred to the hospital to undergo the necessary medical examinations and were provided with treatment. Then they were distributed, each with his family members, to his residential area.
The second batch of detainees includes 154 detainees with high sentences and life sentences, who will be exiled from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, in addition to 1,718 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were abducted after the start of the war on October 7, 2023.
Palestinian mother embraces her son who was held hostage by Israeli authorities:
Hitham Salem returned home to Gaza, only to find that Israel had killed all his children and his wife just weeks before his release. He made a bracelet as a gift for his daughter, whose 5th birthday would have been in a few days.
In addition to the Palestinian hostages who were released to Gaza, this afternoon, the Israeli occupation authorities released 96 detainees with life sentences and high sentences, from Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah, to the Ramallah Cultural Palace in Beitunia, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
This morning, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it had received the 20 Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip in two batches, and handed them over to the Israeli occupation authorities to return to what is now Israel.
According to prisoners’ institutions, the number of detainees in Israeli occupation prisons exceeds 11,000 detainees, suffering from catastrophic conditions and circumstances that include torture, starvation, and systematic medical neglect, which led to the deaths of a number of Palestinian hostages while in captivity.
The number of detainees sentenced to life imprisonment reached 350, and those against whom indictments were filed in preparation for issuing life imprisonment sentences reached 40, and the number of female prisoners reached 53, including three from Gaza, two girls, and about 400 child prisoners who are languishing in Ofer and Megiddo prisons, while the number of hostages held without trial or charges reached about 3,380, as of this October.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation forces carried out a genocide in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of more than 67,869 people, the injury of more than 170,000 others, most of them children and women, and a famine that claimed the lives of 463 citizens, including 157 children.
