Israeli authorities released 90 Palestinian prisoners early on Monday morning as part of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, hours after three Israeli captives were freed from the enclave.
Buses left Israel’s Ofer prison in the early hours of the morning, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
Ahead of their release, the Israeli prison service transported detainees to the military facility in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
Israeli security forces and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) carried out medical and identity checks, before releasing them in coordination with the Israeli government.
Among those freed were 78 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who were transported to the Beitunia checkpoint near Ofer prison.
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Twelve Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem were also transported back to the city, where they were released to their homes after being briefly held at the Russian Compound detention centre.
Sixty two women were freed, of whom one is a minor. An additional 28 men were released, including eight minors.
Under the first phase of the prisoner exchange deal, which began on Sunday morning, each female Israeli civilian captive will be exchanged for 30 Palestinian women and children.
Unlike previous prisoner exchanges, the Israeli army had imposed strict security measures to prevent public gatherings outside the prison, and to prevent celebrations.
Israeli police on Sunday stormed the homes of several Palestinian female prisoners in Jerusalem who were being released.
The police warned their families against celebrating or raising Palestinian flags, with threats that such actions could result in the release being cancelled.
Local media reported that the Israeli army would limit gatherings to first-degree relatives of the prisoners.
The prisoners were transported on buses with blacked-out windows to ensure no photos were taken. Despite the restrictions, hundreds of residents gathered to greet the freed prisoners early on Monday morning.
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Palestinian national and Islamic forces, including Hamas, have called for public participation in receiving the released prisoners in major cities across the West Bank.
Muhammad al-Khasib from Ramallah, son of prisoner Dalal al-Khasib, 53, told Middle East Eye that his family were eagerly awaiting his mother’s release.
“My mother was arrested a year ago and is still in detention without a sentence. The Israeli prosecution demanded that she be imprisoned for 55 months, but today she will come out with the exchange deal and this nightmare will end,” he said.
Khasib said that nothing he and his family endured could be compared to the suffering of those in Gaza, “not even the smallest child among them whose hand or leg was amputated”.
“We will not fulfil what they gave for the sake of the prisoners.”
According to the full text of the truce agreement, the first phase, which will last six weeks, will involve the exchange of 33 Israeli captives and around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners and a return to “sustainable calm”.
On Sunday afternoon, Hamas released Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, who is also a British citizen.
They were handed to the Red Cross in the middle of Gaza City and transferred to their families in Israel while crowds in Tel Aviv watched in anticipation.
As well as the prisoner exchange, Israel will gradually begin to withdraw from the Gaza Strip as part of the first phase, moving eastwards from densely populated areas, including from the Netzarim Corridor and Kuwait Roundabout.
