90 Palestinian prisoners released – big celebration in the West Bank

Late Sunday evening, 90 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prison and received in the West Bank.

The majority of the prisoners were women and the rest were teenagers, according to the AP.

In Red Cross buses they were driven to the city of Ramallah where they were met by a celebrating crowd.

Israel had warned during the evening that it did not intend to allow celebrations in connection with the release in the occupied West Bank. But that didn’t stop thousands of people from celebrating the homecoming of the 90 prisoners.

The prisoners were first taken to Ofer Prison before being bussed to freedom.

The release was part of the prisoner exchange agreed by Hamas and Israel as part of the ceasefire. Earlier on Sunday, three Israeli women who had been held hostage by Hamas since October 7 were released.

The majority of the Palestinian prisoners were women. According to the American news agency AP, the rest must have been teenagers.

Several “administrative detainees”

Around 30 of the prisoners must have been in so-called administrative detention, reported CNN on Sunday. This means that they had no formal charges against them and no ongoing legal process or trial. Of the 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, over 3,000 are administratively detained, according to CNN.

Future prisoner exchanges are said to hold around the same proportions, 30-50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage released by Hamas.

Among the prisoners was also the Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar. Her party PFLP, the second largest organization within the PLO after Fatah, has been labeled a terrorist by the US and the EU.