Seventy Palestinian prisoners, released by Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, arrived in Egypt on Saturday, according to state-linked media outlet Al-Qahera News.
The prisoners, described as “deported,” were transferred to Egyptian hospitals for medical treatment after crossing into Egypt from the Rafah border with Gaza.
Israeli authorities had previously confirmed that the released individuals included over 230 Palestinian prisoners, many serving life sentences for alleged deadly attacks on Israelis.
Under the terms of the agreement, the freed prisoners are barred from returning to Palestinian territories and will be permanently expelled.
After their time in Egypt, the deported prisoners will have the option to resettle in Algeria, Turkey, or Tunisia, as stated by Amin Shuman, head of the Palestinian prisoners’ affairs committee.
Televised footage showed some prisoners, clad in grey tracksuits, disembarking from buses on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border.
Smiling and waving to cameras, one of the released prisoners expressed gratitude, saying, “It’s an indescribable feeling.”
The group was transferred from the Ktziot prison in Israel’s Negev desert and is part of a larger exchange involving 200 Palestinian prisoners released on Saturday. This release coincided with the release of four Israeli soldiers held by Hamas fighters in Gaza.
As of April 2024, Israelis held about 9,500 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank in prison. The estimates are from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a rights group based in the West Bank city of Ramallah that supports Palestinian prisoners.
Israel stopped allowing independent humanitarian organisations to visit Israeli prisons in October, so the actual numbers and conditions of people being held there is hard to tell.
