Buses carrying Palestinians freed by Israel reach Gaza

Buses carrying hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel under a ceasefire deal with Hamas arrived in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Saturday, an AFP journalist said. The convoy organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross dropped off jubilant prisoners, who threw victory signs and waved at a crowd welcoming them, the journalist reported. 

Wearing traditional keffiyeh scarves, the freed prisoners were hoisted on the crowd’s shoulders and hugged relatives before heading to a quick health checkup, the journalist reported. Earlier, buses carrying hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed under the Gaza ceasefire deal left a jail in Israel’s Negev desert heading to the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Shortly thereafter, another bus of jailed Palestinian left the Israeli Ofer prison and headed to the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

Saturday’s swap, the sixth since the truce took effect on January 19, came after fears that the deal between Israel and Hamas was near collapse. Four Palestinian prisoners freed from an Israeli jail on Saturday were transferred to hospital on arrival in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Red Crescent said. “Our teams are transferring four released (Palestinian) prisoners from the location of reception to the hospital,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said in a statement following the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.