BEITUNIA, West Bank (AP) — More than three dozen Palestinian prisoners returned to a hero’s welcome in the occupied West Bank on Friday after being released from Israeli prisons under a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The procession of released prisoners, some charged with minor crimes and others convicted of attacks, at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem sent huge crowds of Palestinians into a chanting, clapping, hand-waving and screaming frenzy.
Fifteen dazed young men, all in stained gray prison tracksuits and emaciated with exhaustion, glided through the streets on their fathers’ shoulders, teary-eyed, as fireworks lit the night sky in brilliant colors and patriotic Palestinian pop music played.
Some of those released were draped in Palestinian flags, others in the green flags of Hamas. They showed victory signs while crowd surfing.
“I have no words, I have no words,” said newly released 17-year-old Jamal Brahma, searching for something to say to the hordes of jostling journalists and thousands of chanting Palestinians, many in national dress. “Thank God.”
Tears streamed down his father Khalil Brahma’s cheeks as he lifted his son from his shoulders and looked him in the eyes for the first time in seven months. Israeli forces arrested Jamal at his home in the Palestinian city of Jericho last spring and held him without charge or trial.
“I just want to be his father again,” he said.
The release of the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons came just hours after two dozen hostages, including 13 Israelis, were released from captivity in Gaza in the first exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners during the four-day ceasefire that began on Friday.
Under the agreement, Hamas is to release at least 50 hostages and Israel is to release 150 Palestinian prisoners within four days. Israel said the ceasefire could be extended by another day for every 10 more hostages released.
Although the atmosphere in the town of Beitunia, near Israel’s vast West Bank Ofer prison, was festive, people were nervous.
The Israeli government has ordered police to call off the release celebrations. At one point, Israeli security forces fired tear gas canisters on the crowd, sending young men, old women and small children running away crying and crying in pain.
“The army is trying to take away this moment from us, but it is failing,” said Mays Foqaha as she fell into the arms of her newly released 18-year-old friend Nour al-Taher from Nablus, who was arrested during a protest in September in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. “This is our Victory Day.”
The Palestinian prisoners released Friday included 24 women, some of whom had been sentenced to years in prison for attempted stabbings and other attacks on Israeli security forces. Others have been accused of sedition on social media.
There were also the 15 male teenagers, most of whom were charged with stone-throwing and “supporting terrorism,” a broad accusation that underscores Israel’s longstanding crackdown on young Palestinian men as violence increases in the occupied territories.
For families on both sides of the conflict, news of the exchange – perhaps the first hopeful moment in 49 days of war – triggered a bittersweet jumble of joy and pain.
“As a Palestinian, my heart is broken for my brothers in Gaza, so I can’t really celebrate,” said Abdulqader Khatib, a U.N. worker whose 17-year-old son Iyas was placed in “administrative detention” last year. “Without charge or trial and based on secret evidence. “But I’m a father. And deep down I’m very happy.”
Israel currently holds a record 2,200 Palestinians in administrative detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy group. This is a controversial policy that Israel defends as a counterterrorism measure.
Since October 7, when Hamas took some 240 Israeli and foreign citizens hostage and killed 1,200 Israelis in its unprecedented rampage through southern Israel, Palestinians have been wondering about the fate of their own prisoners.
Israel has repeatedly agreed to unilateral exchanges in the past. In 2011, Hamas induced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a single captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
The release of a prisoner touches Palestinian society to its core. Almost every Palestinian has a relative in prison – or has been there themselves. Human rights groups estimate that over 750,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967.
While Israel considers them terrorists, the Palestinians refer to them with the Arabic word for prisoners of war and spend a large portion of public money supporting them and their families. Israel and the United States have condemned the benefits to prison families as an incentive for violence.
“Such prisoner exchanges are often the only hope for families that their sons or fathers will be released many years ago,” said Amira Khader, international advocacy officer at Addameer, a group that supports Palestinian prisoners. “That’s what they live for, it’s like a miracle from God.”
Since the Hamas attack, Israel has stepped up its months-long crackdown on Palestinians in the West Bank suspected of having ties to Hamas and other militant groups. Many prisoners are tried by military courts, which prosecute Palestinians with a conviction rate of over 99%. Human rights groups say Palestinians are often denied due process and forced to confess.
There are currently 7,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, said Qadura Fares, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club. Since October 7th alone, over 2,000 have been arrested.
On Friday in Beitunia, a lanky and pimply 16-year-old, Aban Hammad, stood motionless and seemed shaken by the tumult of tears, hugs and pro-Hamas chants around him. It was his first glimpse of the world after a year in prison for throwing stones in the northern city of Qalqilya. He was released despite still having to serve eight months of his sentence.
He turned to his father and hugged him. “Look, I’m almost taller than you now,” he said.