Release of Palestinian Prisoners as a Result of Ceasefire Agreement
Release of Palestinian prisoners near Ofer prison.
Hours after the Palestinian Resistance released three Israeli female captives who were being held in the Gaza Strip, 90 Palestinian detainees were finally released from the Israeli Ofer prison. Buses carrying liberated Palestinian women and children headed to the nearby city of Beitunia where Palestinians gathered to welcome the released detainees, despite threats and brute force used by the occupation forces to outlaw celebrations.
An Al-Mayadeen correspondent reported that one Palestinian was shot and wounded by Israeli forces in Beitunia, as soon as the buses arrived at the city. The Palestinian Red Crescent also said that its teams are treating two individuals injured by Israeli gunfire in the city. Yet, Palestinians continued to gather late into the night welcoming the liberated detainees, Al-Mayadeen reported.
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported that delays occurred due to irregularities on the list of prisoners to be released that day provided by Israeli authorities that were spotted by members of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). The Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office had also revealed that the list presented by Israeli authorities excluded one female prisoner, from the previously agreed upon list. However, the office pressured the occupation to resolve the issue whereupon the release of the prisoners commenced.
The Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, Samidoun, provides detailed information on the 70 women and 20 youth released on the first day of the prisoner exchanges. The series of exchanges will see approximately 1,737 Palestinians liberated in the first stage of the Flood of the Free (Toufan al-Ahrar) by the Palestinian Resistance. The second stage of prisoner exchanges seeks to liberate the leaders of the Resistance, including Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Sa'adat, Abdullah Barghouti, Ibrahim Hamed, Abbas al-Sayyed and Hassan Salameh, that the occupation has thus far refused to release.
Samidoun points out that the Palestinian prisoners liberated in the first day of the prisoner exchange included multiple liberated prisoners who had earlier been released by the resistance in the first prisoner exchange of Al-Aqsa Flood, in November 2023, only to be targeted for re-abduction by the occupation.
They include Wala'a Tanja, Ahmed al-Khashan, Haneen al-Masaed, Rawda Abu Ajamiyeh, and Samah Hijjawi, as well as several well-known, leading prisoners, such as Khalida Jarrar, the prominent Palestinian political leader, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and human and women’s rights advocate; Abla Sa'adat, the wife of Ahmad Sa'adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and writer Zahra Khadraj of Qalqilya; journalists like Israa Lafi, Bushra al-Tawil, and Rula Hassanein; students like Jenin Amr, Raghad Amr, Shaima Rawajbeh, Tamara Abu Laban, Duha al-Wahsh, Amal Shujaia, Ola Jouda, Dunia Shtayyeh, Aseel Eid al-Yassini, Baraa Fuqaha, Shatha Jarabaa, Dania Hanatsheh, Raghad Mubarak, sisters Shaima and Alaa Ramadan, and Al-Yamama Hreinat; educators like Hadeel Shatara and Fatima al-Rimawi; and three members of the Al-Arouri family, targeted and imprisoned because of their relation to the assassinated Hamas leader, Salah al-Arouri: Dalal al-Arouri, Fatima al-Arouri, and Fatima's daughter, Alaa Saqr.
Samidoun writes:
"Duha al-Wahsh and Wala'a Tanja, learned that their brothers had been martyred during their imprisonment, a reality that had been kept from both of them due to the blockade on news and information imposed upon the prisoners. Duha, a medical student, learned that her brother Ahmad, a doctor, had been martyred following her arrest, only upon the moment of her liberation; so, too, did Wala'a Tanja, whose joy at liberation was met with the news that her beloved brother Ayman had been martyred during her imprisonment.
"Ahmad al-Khashan, from Bir al-Basha, south of Jenin, was abducted by the occupation on 25 January 2024, the same day his brother, Wissam, also a liberated prisoner, was martyred by the occupation's bullets, and his brother Mohammed injured in the leg. He had previously been liberated in the November 2023 exchange.
"Several of the women prisoners required immediate health care, and the clear signs of medical neglect and abuse stood in sharp contrast to the health of the three Zionist captives who had been released by the Resistance earlier in the day, despite their circumstances under a genocidal bombing and siege in Gaza. Khalida Jarrar emerged from prison with the signs of her mistreatment -– including five months and one week held in solitary confinement with only a small slit with which to breathe the air -– evident on her face and body, while Margaret al-Rai emerged from the bus with a broken hand, injured by the assault of occupation prison guards. Many of the prisoners had lost tens of pounds during their imprisonment due to the occupation's starvation policy directed against the prisoners.
"Dunia Shtayyeh, the 20-year-old student at the Faculty of Sharia at An-Najah University, was awaited by her grandmother, the famous Hajja Mahfouz Shtayyeh, who became an iconic symbol of Palestinian connection to the land as she hugged her olive trees as they were cut and burned by settlers.
"In fact, the women prisoners were subjected to abuse on the day of their release, as related by Jerusalemite liberated prisoner Latifa Mashasha in interviews; after being transferred from Damon to Ofer prison, the women were dragged by their hair, thrown on the ground while dogs barked at them. Several women were beaten shortly before they were finally delivered to the International Committee of the Red Crescent for the exchange.
"Meanwhile, occupation forces were imposing terror upon the homes of the Jerusalemite prisoners, repeatedly invading their family homes, summoning family members to the notorious Moskobiyeh interrogation centre, and warning of any kind of celebration of the release of their beloved prisoners.
"In Beitunia, occupation forces attempted to dispel the growing crowds awaiting the liberated prisoners, injuring six as they fired upon them, and forcing the prisoners' families to wait long into the early morning hours.
"However, none of these efforts quelled the celebration of the Palestinian people, who joyously welcomed the liberated prisoners, waving the flags of the Resistance and Palestinian flags and chanting for the victorious Resistance in Gaza, Al-Qassam Brigades, Saraya Al-Quds, and the prisoners' liberation.
"Unanimously, the prisoners expressed their love and solidarity for the people of Gaza. 'Our feelings go to our people in Gaza. Our concern in prison, despite the torture and abuse, is for the war on Gaza to stop. Our message and thanks to them. We will never forget what they have done for us until the Day of Judgment,' said liberated medical student Bara'a Fuqaha."
Samidoun concludes: "Once again, as throughout the history of prisoner exchanges, it has been made clear that it is the Resistance that brings liberation, to the prisoners, the land and the people of Palestine, a Resistance that stretches from the heart of Gaza, throughout Palestine, to Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, and to the people of the world.
"We urge everyone, around the world, to join with the Palestinian people in Gaza and everywhere, to celebrate the achievements of the Resistance and the humiliation of the occupier, and to celebrate and welcome each liberated prisoner as the heroes of our global movement that they are, in public events, with posters and public education, with actions and events exposing Zionism and imperialism everywhere."
(Al Mayadeen English, Samidoun)
This article was published in
Friday, January 24, 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/ITN2025/Articles/TI55063.HTM
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