After a delay, Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners. It followed the confirmation by the Israeli military of the release of three Israelis, one male and two females, and five Thai nationals from captivity in the Gaza Strip.

At least 20 freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. They were going to undergo medical checks at the European Hospital.

The families gathered around the vehicles transporting them, but they had to wait for the medical checks to finish before they could be reunited with the prisoners.

The Palestinian Hamas resistance group issued a statement saying it will continue its work until Israeli prisons are emptied of prisoners.

Hamas also said the large crowds that gathered to welcome the freed Palestinian prisoners despite Israel’s attempts to prohibit celebrations was “a message that the issue of prisoners is a red line”.

Video posted on Instagram by a Palestine journalist showed the arrival of a Red Cross bus full of prisoners released from Ofer Prison arriving to crowds of supporters in Betunia, adjacent to the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli government has explicitly forbidden any celebrations surrounding the release.

Some family members have not seen the released prisoners for over a decade; others grew up without seeing their fathers. They were waiting patiently to embrace them and to meet them for the first time.

The released prisoners who spent years in Israeli jails, suffering from all sorts of physical and psychological torture at the hands of the Israeli military, reunited with their families in Gaza, which is very different from how they left it.