By Nidal al-Mghrabi and Ali Sawafta
Kairo/Ramallah (Reuters) of Palestinians sang the praise of Hamas on Saturday when they welcomed prisoners who were freed from the militant group and Israel as part of a ceasefire, in which four Israeli hostages also returned home.
In Ramallah, many liberated prisoners on their shoulders wore in the Israeli -occupied West Bank through cheering crowds, who had been waiting for hours that the buses were wearing the prisoners.
Some of the Palestinian flags or the flags of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, were pivoted by Gaza, his ally of the Iranian-supported Islamic Jihad and the Fatah movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In the Gaza -European hospital in the south of the enclave, in which 16 freed prisoners arrived at medical checks, thousands flowed in to welcome them, and sang Allahu Akbar “God is the biggest” and “greeting to Qassam brigades (Hamas armed wing ) “.
Ikhlas Balousha, a Gazan woman, said that her brother’s release had gone luck, even though she called the destruction, suffering, hunger and genocide in the enclave.
“A feeling of dignity, joy, a feeling of victory despite the pain – a moment in which one could have been a martyr, but praise for God, Lord of the Worlds, which allowed us to see him,” she said to Reuters .
The 200 Palestinians who were released on Saturday include militant, some who serve lifelong prison terms for participation in attacks in which dozens of people were killed, according to a list published by the Hamas.
The Gazans expect to go home north
Some were released in the West Bank, others returned to a Gaza Strip after 15 months. Those who were considered the most dangerous by Israel were brought to Egypt before they were banished to a third country.
“I had no doubt that I would be freed one day. I was convinced,” said Mohammad al-Marda, convicted of lifelong imprisonment and 15 years for his membership in Islamic jihad. He was recaptured in 2021 after excavation with three other inmates from prison through an improvised tunnel.
“We were under pressure and pain in solitary confinement. I swear to God that when I saw the happiness of my people, I was also happy, luck,” he said after I had returned to Ramallah.
According to Israel, those who have been convicted of murder Israelis are not allowed to return home. Around 70 are deported to Egypt, said Palestinian officials and from there to another country, possibly Turkey, Qatar or Algeria. Palestinians call prisoners “heroes” and “freedom fighter”.
Naser Dawoud, a militant of Hamas, who spent 21 years in prison to serve two lifelong prison terms because he had participated in attacks on Israel, said that he could not believe that his name was one of the friction.
“I am a human being and was convicted of life. I hadn’t expected this to happen, there were some efforts before, but this time God blessed us,” he told Reuters.
In the Gaza Strip, doctors began to check the health of the newly published prisoners in the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis.
In an explanation after the publication of the Israeli hostages, Hamas said that it had retained the well -being of the hostages while “the enemy tried to kill them (hostage).
Some freed prisoners from northern Gaza have to spend the night in the south of the enclave for some time until Israel allows hundreds of thousands of residents of North Gaza to return home according to the conditions of the ceasefire.
The Hamas said that Israel was expecting the agreement by immediately pulling armed forces from streets that separated the north and south of the enclave to enable around 650,000 people to return to their houses in the northern areas.
Witnesses said that on a street led north gave a stampede that was blocked by Israeli troops that opened the fire.
Doctors said that a person had been killed there by alleged Israeli fire, one of only one handful of deaths that has been reported since the beginning of the ceasefire. Two more were injured.
In an explanation, the Israeli military said that IDF troops identified several meetings of dozens of suspects in the central gaza strip, which presented a threat and fired warning shots to tackle the threat. It was said that there was no damage to the suspects as a result of the shootout.