It happened shortly after the Palestinian militant movement Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross workers.
Israel released more than 600 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prison on the occupied West Bank of Jordan on Thursday night. Thousands of Palestinians gathered in Ramallah to welcome the dismissed prisoners. According to the AFP report, TASR reports this.
Hundreds of prisoners were to be released last Saturday. However, Israel postponed the release in response to the course of passing the bodies of Israeli hostages. Hamas exhibited four coffins with the deceased on the stage while handing over the bodies of the Red Cross to the employees of the Red Cross and placed a photograph of the victim on each of them. On the canvas behind the coffins, they depicted a bloody portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Saturday, Israel blocked hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in response and demanded Hamas to stop these ceremonies. Both Israel, but also the international community, condemned these ceremonies.
The BBC reported that there are no clear identities of prisoners or for what crimes they were convicted. Also, the number of dismissed prisoners is not known. Before his release, the BBC claimed that there should be more than 400 Gazans among the Palestinians released, whose Israeli forces were detained during the more than 15 months lasting war in the Gaza Strip, and 50 prisoners whose Israel sentenced to life sentences.
This is the last replacement of hostages and prisoners in the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which came into force on January 19, during this phase Hamas was supposed to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for 1904 Palestinian prisoners.
The first 42-day phase will end on Saturday and, according to Reuters, it is still unclear whether there will be an extension that could lead to the release of the other of the 59 remaining hostages remaining, or whether negotiations on the second phase of this ceasefire agreement may begin.
