Israel released two hundred imprisoned Palestinians from Israeli prisons on Saturday, in exchange for the four hostages – four Israeli female soldiers – who released Hamas on Saturday morning. International press agencies report this. It is the second exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners since the file between Israel and Hamas officially entered last week.
Earlier, Israel announced that it would not allow the Palestinians in Gaza due to disagreement about compliance with the file. They were, however, dismissed from the prisons and brought to the West Bank occupied by Israel. Images show that buses with released Palestinians enter the city of Ramallah and are being welcomed by a large crowd of partying Palestinians. With the releases a week earlier, Israel did not allow a festive reception of Palestinians.
Many prominent prisoners are not allowed to return to the Palestinian territories, but are deported. Egypt said on Saturday he received about seventy released Palestinians at Rafah, the border crossing with the Gaza Strip. As a mediator, Egypt has repeatedly been involved in the creation of the ceasefire.
Legal proceedings
The names of the two hundred imprisoned Palestinians were announced on Saturday morning. These are Palestinians who have been convicted, often for long -term prison sentences, reports, among others, Reuters news agency. Among the released Palestinians are also 52-year-old Mohamed Odeh and the 54-year-old Wael Qassim, who were found guilty for the fatal attacks at a university in Jerusalem in 2002 in the name of Hamas. Nine people were killed, including five US citizens.
Last week the first group of ninety Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons were released as part of the file. It mainly concerned women and children.
It is known that many thousands of Palestinians are stuck in Israeli prisons because of a so -called ‘administrative detention’. That is a preventive measure of Israel, whereby someone is fixed to prevent him from committing a crime in the future. Many Palestinians are therefore imprisoned without legal proceedings. Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watchthis process has been rejecting for years.
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Second group hostages released by Hamas and arrived in Israel