Israel Gaza: 33 Palestinians released on fourth day of truce
- Published
Muhammad Abu Al-Humus, a Palestinian former prisoner released from an Israeli jail, hugged his mother after returning to his home in East Jerusalem on Monday night
More Palestinians have been freed from Israeli prisons on the fourth day of a truce between Israel and Hamas.
The release of 33 people means 150 Palestinians have been released since Friday - the day both sides began swapping hostages and prisoners.
Fifty-one Israeli hostages, including three-year-old-twin sisters, have been freed by Hamas as part of the deal.
Qatar has said the pause in fighting will be extended by two days, which Israel has not confirmed or denied.
Little information has been released about the latest group of Palestinians to be freed.
On Monday both Hamas and Qatar - which has played a major role in the talks between the warring sides - said 30 Palestinian children and three women were due to be freed.
The Israel Prison Service later said 33 people had been freed from Ofer prison in the West Bank, and a detention centre in Jerusalem, but did not specify their genders or ages.
By the evening, Reuters news agency reported that a bus carrying the newly released Palestinian prisoners had arrived in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Images showed people in the Palestinian city, waiting to greet them - some carrying green flags of Hamas, their faces covered with balaclavas.
Separate images showed a Palestinian boy named Muhammad Abu Al-Humus reuniting with his mother, and other family members, at the family's home in East Jerusalem.
Al-Humus called his release "an indescribable joy" and kissed his mother's hand, the AFP news agency reports.
It was not immediately clear which facility he had been detained in, or for how long.
Eitaf Jaradat, one of the three Palestinian women released in the latest exchange, said "the price of our freedom is seemingly expensive" as she was welcomed back by her family.
"We always hope that we are freed and that our people are in a good situation. But this is our destiny that we were freed while they are on a sea of blood," she told Reuters.
Ms Jaradat was arrested in 2021, accused of involvement in a shooting that caused the death of an Israeli settler, according to Reuters.
While fighting between Hamas and Israel is temporarily suspended, aid organisations have taken the opportunity to send lorries into Gaza filled with essentials such as food, water, fuel and medicines.
Hamas has committed to releasing another 20 women and children, should a two-day extension of the truce go ahead.
Israel has not commented explicitly on the extension, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Monday evening that it had "approved the inclusion of 50 female prisoners in the list of prisoners eligible to be released, in the event that a release of additional Israeli hostages is carried out".
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- Published27 August
- Published27 November 2023
