Newly released Palestinian prisoners flashed victory signs to cheering crowds who gathered on Monday to watch them step into freedom under the new cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Families waited at dawn in the West Bank city of Ramallah and broke into teary-eyed trills as buses carrying some of the nearly 2,000 released prisoners approached. They rushed forward to greet the men as they stepped off. Many of the men looked haggard and exhausted.
“This feeling is indescribable,” said Nasser Shehadeh, who was released after serving three years of a 17-year sentence for ramming two soldiers with a car. He was told he would be freed three days ago, and said the news came as a surprise.
“I haven’t slept since that moment,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, the Israeli prison service said it had freed all of the 1,968 Palestinian prisoners slated for release in an exchange for all remaining hostages in Gaza. The prisoners were sent to the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Among those freed were 250 Palestinians convicted of terrorism offenses or acts of violence against Israelis and roughly 1,700 more who were detained in Gaza without charge during the war.
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The post Cheering Crowds Greet Palestinian Prisoners Freed by Israel appeared first on New York Times.
