Palestinians have fun as prisoners are launched by Israel beneath Gaza ceasefire deal

BEITUNIA, West Financial institution — Cheers erupted amongst Palestinians on Monday as Israel launched practically 2,000 prisoners beneath a Gaza ceasefire settlement that noticed them exchanged for Israeli hostages freed by Hamas.

Giant crowds greeted the freed prisoners in Beitunia within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution and in Khan Younis in Gaza, flashing V-for-victory indicators as they descended from Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross buses. In Beitunia, they got conventional keffiyeh scarves as a present of nationalist delight. Some had been lifted onto folks’s shoulders. Others sank into chairs, exhausted.

“It was an indescribable journey of suffering — hunger, unfair treatment, oppression, torture and curses — more than anything you could imagine,” mentioned Kamal Abu Shanab, a 51-year-old Fatah member from the West Financial institution city of Tulkarem.

His face was gaunt. He mentioned he misplaced 139 kilos (59 kilograms) in jail.

“We don’t recognize him. He’s not the person we knew. Our uncle doesn’t look like our uncle,” mentioned his niece, Farah Abu Shanab.

These freed embody round 1,700 of the a number of thousand Palestinians that Israeli troops seized from Gaza through the 2-year battle and have held with out cost.

Additionally amongst these launched had been 250 Palestinians sentenced to jail phrases, most of them convicted for lethal assaults on Israelis relationship again a long time in addition to others convicted on lesser expenses, in accordance with Israel’s Justice Ministry. Of these, Israel exiled 154, sending them to neighboring Egypt, the place officers mentioned they are going to be despatched to 3rd international locations.

The remaining had been returning to houses in East Jerusalem, the West Financial institution and Gaza.

A profound second

The releases have highly effective resonance on either side.

For Israelis, they’re deeply painful, since a few of these launched had been convicted over assaults that killed civilians and troopers. For Palestinians, the difficulty of prisoners is politically charged. Practically everybody has a buddy or member of the family who has been jailed by Israel, notably younger males.

Whereas Israel views the prisoners as terrorists, many Palestinians think about them as freedom fighters resisting a decades-long Israeli navy occupation. Reviews from rights teams detailing circumstances whereas held — together with isolation, abuse and sickness — have made prisoners distinguished symbols of their folks’s political wrestle.

In Khan Younis, hundreds of individuals cheered and celebratory gunfire rang within the air. The freed Palestinians filed out carrying grey jumpsuits and entered the hospital for medical examinations.

Israeli forces detained hundreds of Palestinians through the battle in raids on shelters and hospitals and at checkpoints stopping households as they fled their houses amid navy operations.

Households usually had no thought their family had been detained, and it usually took months to find out in the event that they had been in Israeli custody, if affirmation got here in any respect. Most had been held beneath legal guidelines handed in Israel at first of the battle that allowed Palestinians to be detained for months as “unlawful combatants” with out judicial evaluation or entry to attorneys.

Rights teams, the U.N. and detainees have reported routine abuse within the detention services, together with beatings and inadequate meals.

Israel says it adheres to its jail requirements beneath regulation and investigates any reviews of violations.

Monday’s launch nonetheless leaves about 1,300 Palestinians from Gaza in Israeli custody, in accordance with a rely of detainees in September by the Israeli human rights group Hamoked.

Warnings to not have fun

Celebrations within the West Financial institution occurred regardless of Israeli warnings in opposition to doing so. A flier circulated saying anybody supporting what it known as “terrorist organizations” risked arrest.

Palestinians had gathered on hills overlooking Ofer Jail. An armored Israeli automobile drove up and fired tear gasoline and rubber bullets. As drones buzzed overhead, the group scattered.

Israel’s navy didn’t reply to questions.

Who’s on the record

Based on an inventory issued by Hamas, the Gaza detainees freed embody two girls, six youngsters beneath 18 and round 30 males over 60.

The record of 250 convicted prisoners freed, ranging in age from 19 to 64, contains 159 affiliated with Fatah, the political occasion that runs the Palestinian Authority within the West Financial institution, and 63 related to Hamas. The rest are unaffiliated or belong to different teams.

Many had been arrested within the early 2000s, which noticed the eruption of the Second Intifada, a Palestinian rebellion fueled by anger over continued Israeli occupation regardless of years of peace talks. Palestinian armed teams carried out assaults that killed lots of of Israelis, and the Israeli navy killed a number of thousand Palestinians.

Some had been convicted in navy trials that rights advocates say usually lack due course of. Others have been incarcerated for months or years with out trial in what is called administrative detention. Israel says the follow, extensively criticized by Palestinians and human rights teams, is required to stop assaults and keep away from sharing delicate intelligence.

The Hamas record didn’t embody roughly half a dozen highest-profile prisoners, together with Marwan Barghouti, Hassan Salameh, Ahmed Saadat and Abbas Al-Sayyed. Barghouti is extensively seen as a possible successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

An inventory of launched prisoners issued by Israel contains the next:

Raed Sheikh
A 51-year-old Palestinian police officer and Fatah member, Sheikh was sentenced to a number of life phrases in 2000 for his position within the killing of two Israeli troopers who had been attacked by a mob at a West Financial institution police station, together with one thrown from the station’s window.

Mahmoud Issa
A 57-year-old Hamas commander imprisoned for all times in 1993 — earlier than the Oslo interim peace accords — Issa was amongst these convicted of kidnapping and killing a 29-year-old Israeli border police officer that yr. A lot of his greater than three a long time behind bars had been spent in solitary confinement, circumstances which have made him a logo amongst prisoners’ rights advocates.

Shamasneh brothers
The 2 brothers — 56-year-old Mohammed and 62-year-old Abdel Jawad Shamasneh — had been in 1993 sentenced to a number of life phrases for his or her position in a stabbing assault that killed Israeli hitchhikers whose our bodies had been later present in a Jerusalem riverbed in 1990 through the first Palestinian intifada.

Iyad Fatafta
A 47-year-old Fatah member serving a life sentence, Fatafta was one in all two males convicted of homicide for stabbing American vacationer Kristine Luken and a buddy who was mountaineering along with her and survived.