Above photo: A released Palestinian prisoner kisses a loved one as she leaves the Israeli military prison, Ofer. Ammar Awad/Reuters.
Israel’s release of 39 Palestinian women and children in a truce deal came at the ‘price of the blood of the martyrs’ in Gaza.
Crowds across the occupied West Bank cheered and waved Palestinian and Hamas flags, along with kaffiyeh scarves, as 39 Palestinian women and children held captive by Israel were released.
The Palestinian captives were transported home in white buses — escorted by armored vehicles — from the Ofer military camp.
Israel released the Palestinians under a truce agreement to pause the fighting in besieged Gaza after Hamas released 13 Israeli women and children and 10 Thai workers the resistance movement captured during its 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood raid on Israel.
A total of 50 Israelis and 150 Palestinians are due to be released as part of the deal. More captives from each side are set to be released today, the second day of the four-day truce.
“I am happy, but my liberation came at the price of the blood of the martyrs,” said Marah Bakir, 24, referring to the nearly 15,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombing in Gaza since 7 October.
Freedom from “the four walls of the prison” was “magnificent,” said Bakir, who Israel had held captive for eight years.
“I spent the end of my childhood and my adolescence in prison, far from my parents and their hugs,” she told the AFP news agency after returning to her family home in Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem.
“That’s how it is with a state that oppresses us.”
Hanan Al-Barghouti, 58, who released after two months in Israeli custody, praised the armed wing of Hamas, its leader, and the people of besieged Gaza.
“May God reward them well on our behalf,” she said.
“If it were not for the people of Gaza, we would not have seen freedom.”
“We were inside the prison, eating bitterness. They were sadists. They insulted us and humiliated us, but our pride is high, and our dignity is elevated, thanks to the resistance.”
Around 8,300 Palestinians remain in captivity in Israeli prisons.
The 13 freed Israelis, including four children, appeared in good physical health, though some were “feeble, exhausted” after 49 days in captivity in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported on 25 November.
The released Israelis were first sent to hospitals to check their condition. Along with Palestinians, Hamas’ Israeli captives survived nearly two months of intense Israeli bombardment.
Hamas said on 5 November that Israeli airstrikes had killed 60 of the captives, including 23 whose bodies were stuck under the rubble.
Schneider Medical Center in Petah Tikva said that four Israeli women and four children they received are “in good condition.”
“They are with their families in a separate area prepared for them, enveloped by medical, social and psychological teams.”
Wolfson Medical Center in Holon stated that the five released Israeli captives who arrived yesterday are stable. “Each is being treated according to their condition based on an examination yesterday.”
The hospital adds that the five “are being embraced by their families.”
The released Israeli captives were not allowed by Israeli authorities to speak with the media.
Following the release of Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, on 24 October, she gave a press conference from the hospital where she said Hamas had “treated her well.”
The Israeli press described the incident as a public relations disaster for painting Hamas in a positive light.
Thailand’s deputy ambassador to Israel welcomed the release of 10 of his country’s nationals from Gaza yesterday.
“They’re all in good condition, they’re being treated,” he told Ynet. “Once they are ready physically and mentally, we’ll bring them home.”
Thailand believes 20 more people are held captive by Hamas. Many Thai migrants work on farms in Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.