20/1/2025–|Last updated: 1/20/202503:51 AM (Mecca time)
On Sunday/Monday night, the Israeli authorities released dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, from Ofer Prison, west of the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, mediated by international and regional mediation.
Buses bearing the insignia of the International Committee of the Red Cross, accompanied by vehicles belonging to the Committee, were seen leaving the prison, carrying Palestinian prisoners to their areas.
At the same time, Israel released a number of Jerusalemite prisoners directly to their homes in the city of Jerusalem, where Palestinian human rights organizations confirmed the publication of the names of 90 prisoners, including 20 children and boys, who were included in the first phase of the agreement.
In the vicinity of the prison from Beitunia (a Palestinian town located between Jerusalem and Ramallah), the Israeli army declared the area near the prison a closed military zone and prohibited the gathering of prisoners’ families.
Dozens of families of the released prisoners gathered near the prison, waiting for their liberated families, and were subjected to gas bombs fired by the Israeli army.
-In total, Israel holds more than 10,400 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons, and it is currently estimated that there are about 96 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, Hamas announced that dozens of them were killed in random Israeli raids.
On Sunday morning, a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel entered into force, which will continue in its first phase for 42 days, during which negotiations will take place to begin a second and then a third phase.
In the first phase, Hamas is scheduled to release 33 Israeli male and female prisoners, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the number of which depends on the status of each Israeli prisoner, whether he is a military or a “civilian.”
With American support, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 157,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens. Children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.
