Members of the crowd climbed atop the lead bus and unfurled Palestinian, Hamas and other flags [John Wessels/AFP via Getty]
Hundreds of people cheered, chanted and honked car horns as two buses carrying Palestinian prisoners freed from an Israeli jail arrived in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia early on Monday, AFP journalists reported.
The buses held some of the 90 prisoners released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that began Sunday and saw three Israeli hostages freed by Hamas.
Members of the crowd climbed atop the lead bus and unfurled a Hamas flag, the journalists reported.
They were joined by others waving the flags of Fatah, Islamic Jihad and several other Palestinian factions, as well as the Palestinian national flag.
Inside the bus, a handful of freed female prisoners could be seen smiling and flashing V-signs while a Red Cross staff member watched on.
Earlier the Israel Prison Service confirmed in a statement that it had completed the first release of prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
“All the terrorists were released from Ofer prison and the Jerusalem detention centre”, the service said, referring to the Palestinian prisoners, in a statement issued just before 1:30 am (2330 GMT Sunday). They are all women and teenagers.
The prisoner release, the first in the war since November 2023, followed the freeing of three women hostages by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Israel is expected to release 737 prisoners over the first phase of the deal, in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages.
More than 230 of them are expected to be exiled immediately upon their release.
✌️✌️ بدأ خروج أسرانا من سجن عوفر #وقف_اطلاق_النار #غزة_تنتصر_والمتصهين_ينهزم pic.twitter.com/EuaiyNutw5
— عَبْدُالرَّحمـٰن السَّمْرَهْ (@SamraAbdulrhman) January 19, 2025
