Palestinians cheer as freed prisoners begin to arrive under ceasefire deal

Several thousand Palestinians gathered around Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis to await the arrival of the freed prisoners.

Palestinians rushed to embrace prisoners freed under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement as they arrived by bus to the West Bank and Gaza on Monday.

The prisoners were released after the Hamas terror group freed the last 20 living hostages taken on October 7.

Under the deal, Israel is set to release 250 Palestinians convicted of murder and other serious crimes as well as 1,700 Palestinians detained in Gaza since the war began, 22 Palestinian minors, and the bodies of 360 terrorists.

Hamas said 154 of the prisoners were deported to Egypt.

Several thousand people gathered inside and around the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, awaiting the arrival of freed prisoners, with some waving Palestinian flags and others holding pictures of their relatives.

Authorities previously warned the families of the Palestinian prisoners that it was forbidden to host public celebrations of their release, though several celebrations are understood to have gone ahead.

Riots broke out in east Jerusalem following the release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel Police reported that rioters launched Molotov cocktails and threw stones at authorities.

The Ofer detention facility was decorated with posters ahead of the prisoners’ release reading, “He who threatens a flood is drowned and wiped out,” referring to “the Al Aqsa Flood” (Hamas’s name for the October 7 massacre).

Which terrorists did Israel release?

Despite Israeli media reporting that Israel had refused to release prisoners with children’s blood on their hands, Ahmed Mahmed Jameel Shahada is understood to be among the prisoners released.

Shahada, who was sentenced to life in 1989, raped and killed 13-year-old Oren Bahrami. He had lured the young boy into an Armenian monastery after meeting him at a port in Jaffa.

Shahada’s motivations were decided by the courts to be criminal, not terrorist in nature.

Former Palestinian Authority police officer Raed Sheikh, who was convicted in 2003 for his role in the killing of reservists Vadim Norzhich and Yossi Avrahami at a police station in Ramallah in 2000, was also released.

“If we are freeing the murderer, it should be clear, aside from the great pain of me and my family, the terrorist will return to terror,” Norzhich’s brother told Ynet. “They will go back to killing the Jews; this is their real goal.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Iyad Abu al-Rub, who orchestrated three deadly suicide bombings in Shadmot Mechola, Tel Aviv and Hadera from 2003 until 2005, was also killed. 15 people were killed during the attacks.