A night of joy - mixed with pain - as Palestinians celebrate their prisoners release

Ahram Online , Monday 20 Jan 2025

After a 15-month genocidal war and misery, the Palestinian people are celebrating with mixed feelings the release of dozens of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails after the ceasefire in Gaza took hold on Sunday.

GAZA
Palestinian prisoner Baraah Fuqaha (R), is welcomed by relatives upon the arrival of some 90 prisoners set free by Israel in the early hours of January 20, 2025 in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. AFP

 

Following a delay of about seven hours, Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners early Monday morning in exchange for 3 Israeli captives as part of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, the group includes 69 women and 21 children, with 76 from the West Bank and 14 from Jerusalem.

Over the next 42 days, around 1,900 Palestinians are due to be freed in exchange for 33 Israeli captives.

In the occupied West Bank, the mood was initially subdued as the Israeli military warned that public celebrations for the released prisoners would be punished, as reported by AP. 

However, scuffles with Israeli security forces and hours of waiting did little to deter the crowds that flooded the streets around 1:00am as large white buses carrying 90 Palestinian detainees — all women or teens — exited the gates of Ofer prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Drivers revved their engines in celebration, and fireworks erupted. Several men climbed on top of the bus and hoisted three Hamas flags.

“God is greater!” the crowds shouted.

Mixed feelings!
 

Many of those released expressed elation tinged with grief for the devastation wrought by the war in Gaza.

A “double feeling” is how the most prominent detainee freed, Khalida Jarrar, 62, described it.

Jarrar is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular leftist faction that was involved in attacks against Israel in the 1970s but later scaled back militant activities.

Since her arrest in late 2023, she has been held under indefinitely renewable administrative detention — a widely criticized practice that Israel uses against Palestinians.

“There’s this double feeling we’re living in, on the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain, of losing so many Palestinian martyrs,” she told The Associated Press.

All of those released had been detained for what Israel called offences related to its security, from throwing stones and promoting violence on social media to more serious accusations such as attempted murder.

Bara’a Al-Fuqha, 22, hugged her family as she stepped off the white Red Cross bus and into the sea of cheering Palestinians welcoming those freed by Israel early Monday.

Al-Fuqha, a medical student at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem before her arrest, had spent around six months in Damon Prison.

She said she was held under administrative detention — a policy of indefinite imprisonment without formal charge or trial that Israel almost exclusively uses against Palestinians. 

Al-Fuqha said her conditions in the Israeli prison were “terrible,” and her access to food and water was limited.

“It was like, when we tried to hold our heads high, the guards would do their best to hold us down,” she told AP.

Now reunited with her family, Al-Fuqha displayed a sense of relief and defiance.

“Thank God, I am here with my family, I’m satisfied,” she said. “But my joy is limited, because so many among us Palestinians are being tortured and abused. Our people in Gaza are suffering. God willing, we will work to free them, too.”

Long wait!

 

Bushra Al-Tawil, a Palestinian journalist jailed in Israel in March 2024, was among the first batch of prisoners to be released in the truce.

"The wait was extremely hard. But thank God, we were certain that at any moment we would be released," she said.

Al-Tawil had only learned she would be freed from other inmates who had attended a hearing.

"The lawyers told them the (ceasefire) deal had been announced and was in the implementation phase," Al-Tawil, whose father is also in an Israeli jail, told AFP.

"I was worried about him. He is still a prisoner, but I just received good news that he will be released as part of this deal," he added.

A crowd of hundreds of Palestinians pressed around Al-Tawil and the other prisoners released.

Families reunited!
 

Many in the crowd had gathered earlier on a hill in Beitunia for a view of Israel's Ofer prison, from where the prisoners were being released.

"We came here to witness it and feel the emotions, just like the families of the prisoners who are being released today," said Amanda Abu Sharkh, 23, from the nearby city of Ramallah.

Muhammad, 20, said he had come from Ramallah with his friends when he heard about the releases.

He was recently released from Ofer prison and expressed "great joy" at reuniting families.

"I know a lot of people in prison, there are innocent people, children and women," he told AFP.

An 18-year-old woman could barely contain her joy as she awaited her mother's release.

"I'll hug her right away of course, I'll hug her. At first, it'll just be tears of joy," she said.

"After that, she'll tell us about her time in prison, and we'll tell her about our lives without her. I'm sure there will be a lot of crying," she said as she stood by her brother, sister, and aunt.

Her mother, a doctor, had been arrested in January 2024 in the north of the occupied West Bank for social media activity, she added.

"They accused her of incitement because of posts she wrote on Facebook," she said, calling the charges "ridiculous" for a middle-aged nurse and trained midwife.

Thinking of others!
 

Nearby, Oday waited with his family.

Though he had been freed after being arrested with his son at the start of the Gaza war, his son remains detained and is not on the initial release list.

Oday, who preferred not to give his last name for fear of jeopardizing his son's release, said his son had been arrested for social media activity.

However, he said he wanted to celebrate all the releases on Sunday night because he knows what captivity is like.

"You can't think for yourself and for your son only," he stressed, adding that he was happy the captives were released from Gaza as well.

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