After initial delays on Thursday, the Israeli government has released 110 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of seven Israeli and Thai hostages by Hamas.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had ordered a suspension of the release, after a footage showed that two Israeli hostages, Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Moses, 80, alongside five Thai nationals, were pushed and shoved around by a crowd in Khan Younis as they were transferred to the Red Cross.
Netanyahu said the exercise would be delayed until Hamas can guarantee the “safe exit” of its citizens.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, have ordered the delay in the release of the terrorists scheduled to be released today – until the safe exit of our hostages is guaranteed in the next few days,” the government said in a statement.
Netanyahu said the event demonstrated “the unimaginable cruelty of the Hamas terrorist organization,” and urged mediators of the ceasefire deal to ensure such incidents do not happen again.
However, after assurances by Hamas, Netanyahu’s office has put out the following statement:
“Pursuant to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand, the mediators have conveyed a commitment, according to which the safe exit of our hostages who are due to be released in the next phases has been assured.
“Israel insists that the lessons be learned and that strict care be taken in the next phases regarding the safe return of our hostages,” the statement read.
Following the announcement, Israel’s Prison Service began the release of the prisoners under the terms of the ceasefire deal. Two buses conveyed them to Ramallah in the West Bank where a huge crowd waited for them.
Among the released prisoners was Zakaria al-Zubeidi, a high-profile Palestinian prisoner. According to CNN, Zubeidi was on a bus carrying the released detainees from Israel’s Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.
Zubeidi is one of the popular leaders of the Palestinian conflict of 2000. He was known as the Second Intifada and was the commander of the Jenin branch of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the militant wing of the Palestinian political party, Fatah.
He was on Israel’s list of most wanted people for years and was later arrested in 2019.
In 2021, he escaped from Gilboa prison, which lies between the Sea of Galilee in Israel and the West Bank town of Jenin, along with five other Palestinian prisoners. However, he was recaptured several days later.
