Israel has begun releasing 602 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the bodies of four slain hostages, with the first bus of prisoners arriving in Ramallah, Israeli media reported Wednesday night.
The slain hostages have been handed over to the Red Cross at the Kerem Shalom crossing without a Hamas propaganda ceremony like those seen in previous releases. After the remains are all confirmed by Israeli authorities, additional prisoners will be released from various prisons in Israel to either the West Bank or Gaza.
The Palestinian prisoners due to be released include 445 men and 24 women and minors arrested in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a Hamas source.
Before being put on busses, “Our eyes are watching you” was projected onto a building visible from Ofer Prison, where some of the prisoners were serving terms.
The first batch of prisoners from Wednesday’s release were dropped in Ramallah to cheering crowds and celebrations, Reuters reported.
המסר שהוקרן על אחד הבניינים שמשקיפים על כלא עופר: “העיניים שלנו צופות בכם” | תיעוד@OmerShahar123 צילום: מתוך שידור חי של AP pic.twitter.com/JxpK1ZmjEd
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Prisoners’ release delayed
On Monday, Hamas announced that it had reached an agreement with Israel in regards to returning the bodies of the remaining phase one hostage’s remains in exchange for over 600 Palestinian prisoners who were not released last Saturday.
“An agreement was reached to solve the problem of the occupation delaying the release of the prisoners who should have been released in the last batch, provided that they are released simultaneously with the bodies of the Israeli prisoners agreed to be handed over, in addition to the corresponding number of Palestinian women and children,” Hamas said in a Tuesday statement.
The prisoner’s planned Saturday release was postponed because Hamas did not properly return Shiri Bibas’s remains in the first handover of the hostages’ bodies on Friday. Instead, the terrorist organization initially returned an anonymous woman’s body, whose DNA did not match any of the hostages still held in Gaza.
The delay with Bibas’s remains, alongside other violations of the ceasefire-hostage deal, led the Prime Minister’s office to pause the release of any prisoners.
“Due to Hamas’s repeated violations – including ceremonies that disgrace our hostages’ dignity and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda purposes – it has been decided to delay the release of the terrorists planned for yesterday until the release of the next hostages is ensured, without the degrading ceremonies,” the PMO said in a statement.
Hamas has put on ceremonies for every hostage release so far and invited Gazans to spectate. Often, there have been disturbing posters, and living hostages have been forced to do degrading things such as kiss Hamas troops on the forehead.
Reuters and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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