Buses carrying scores of Palestinian prisoners released from Ofer Prison arrived on Monday in Beitunia, near Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank, Al-Jazeera reported.
Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office announced that buses carrying released detainees had begun departing Israeli prisons, as part of the prisoner exchange deal with Israel that took effect Monday morning.
In the same context, Al-Jazeera said that Israeli occupation forces fired smoke bombs at journalists stationed near Ofer Prison.
Commenting on the release, the media director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Office told Al-Jazeera that “the liberation of prisoners and the cessation of the war in Gaza mark a major national day.”
He added that “a number of prisoners who have spent decades in Israeli jails will be freed,” while accusing Israel of “trying to evade its obligations in every agreement.”
Reuters news agency also quoted an official source as saying that all 1,966 Palestinian prisoners slated for release on Monday under the exchange deal had boarded buses inside Israeli prisons.
The source said that among them are 1,716 Palestinians from Gaza, to be released from the Nasser Medical Complex in the Strip, and 250 Palestinians serving life sentences, who will be freed to the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, and abroad.
More than 11,100 Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel, enduring torture, starvation, and medical neglect — with several deaths reported by both Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations.
