Large crowds greeted the freed prisoners in Beitunia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Khan Younis in Gaza, flashing V-for-victory signs as they descended from International Committee of the Red Cross buses. In Beitunia, they were given traditional keffiyeh scarves as a show of nationalist pride. Some were lifted onto people’s shoulders. Others sank into chairs, exhausted.
“It was an indescribable journey of suffering — hunger, unfair treatment, oppression, torture and curses — more than anything you could imagine,” said Kamal Abu Shanab, a 51-year-old Fatah member from the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
His face was gaunt. He said he lost 139 pounds (59 kilograms) in prison.
“We don’t recognize him. He’s not the person we knew. Our uncle doesn’t look like our uncle,” said his niece, Farah Abu Shanab.
Those freed include around 1,700 of the several thousand Palestinians that Israeli troops seized from Gaza during the 2-year war and have held without charge.
Also among those released were 250 Palestinians sentenced to prison terms, most of them convicted for deadly attacks on Israelis dating back decades as well as others convicted on lesser charges, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry. Of those, Israel exiled 154, sending them to neighboring Egypt, where officials said they will be sent to third countries.
The rest were returning to homes in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinian-prisoners-mideast-war-4ff433ea39a313c1937d1c0a577efaf4
Posted by cmaia1503
34 Comments
Glad they made it home to their families.
FREE PALESTINE, Always and Forever 🇵🇸🍉
NETANYAHU NEEDS TO BE TRIED AS A WAR CRIMINAL AND THROWN IN THE HAGUE!
FROM THE RIVER TO THE FUCKING SEA 🇵🇸🍉
The difference in physical appearances between Palestinian Hostages & Israeli hostages is very telling..
Amputations.
AMPUTATIONS.
Dead children and innocent people.
I really hate this planet. Never again means NEVER AGAIN. Or at least it was supposed to.
FREE PALESTINE
looking at the horrible physical condition of these hostages vs the condition of many of the israeli hostages should be a major fucking news story
but i doubt we’ll see much if any of these hostages on mainstream media
i wish the best for these people and their families, FREE PALESTINE FOREVER 🍉🇵🇸
I’m glad they are finally home. And free Palestine. The madness needs to end.
There has to be consequences; these are crime wars that need to be prosecuted.
I hope they all stay safe and Israel doesn’t do what they usually do and recapture them.
The state some of them are in physically is heartbreaking. I can’t imagine their mental states.
Fuck. This is harrowing to look at, I am grateful that they are freed but looking at these pictures, I’m just near tears. Thank god they are able to be reunited with their families but they deserve more.
Free Palestine 🙏
I appreciate this sub so much. I was so angry seeing the news headlines today calling things like Israel’s “hostages” exchanged for Palestinian “prisoners.”
What prisoners?! These are people who were kidnapped from their own land, detained without trial, many of them children, journalists, ordinary people. They’re held indefinitely in Israeli prisons under “administrative detention,” often tortured or cut off from their families and then the nerve for this news media to still call them prisoners? 2 years and 75 years of genocide and these cowards still can’t get the wording right. Seeing people here call it what it really is just feels so right.
And look at the Israeli hostages. Healthy, unscathed and happy to see their families.
Note the difference.
Watch as the mainstream media and online circles completely ignore the hundreds of Palestinian hostages and the state they’re in, while having wall-to-wall coverage of the 20 Israelis who were released.
FUCK ISRAEL, FUCK ISRAELIS, FUCK ZIONISM AND ZIONISTS. WE WILL NEVER FORGET NOR FORGIVE THESE WAR CRIMINALS. THEY HAVE TO ANSWER FOR THE PAIN AND THE DESTRUCTION THEY’VE CAUSED. THE WORLD CAN’T LOOK AWAY. FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE
🇵🇸💖
Two things are true: 1. I am overcome with joy that families and friends are reunited and back home and 2. I loathe the political theater that follows this, while those who could have long ago stopped it demand adulation.
I don’t believe in God, but for them—Alhamdulillah
FREE PALESTINE
I’m torn, I’m thrilled they’re reunited with their families and finally brought home, but seeing how frail they are, and the fact some are amputees is absolutely soul crushing. Everyone involved in these atrocities should be punished.
🇵🇸❤️
Such a beautiful moment, but my heart breaks and cries for those freed to learn their families no longer exist and were killed by genocide. This “war” should have never taken place.
i can’t imagine what they must be feeling. from the river to the sea
You know these are convicted murders?
Notice how nobody is talking about this? They’re only talking about the Israeli hostages that were freed, meanwhile Israel has hundreds of Palestinians in cages, releases a few of them, and not a peep.
Palestinian joy>>>>>
Maybe we should stop being so horrific to our fellow humans. No matter how much any nation tries to dehumanize another, it doesn’t change the fact that we’re all the same really—PEOPLE.
Also important to note, some of the hostages have been exiled by Israel from Palestine. So they are not asked to come home to their families.
The difference between the health of the Palestinian hostages and the Israeli hostages could not be more stark
Such beauty and sadness in reunification. Learning that family is now dead and seeing the treatment of the IDF… ugh. Netanyahu and the entire Israeli and every government that aided them need to be tried for their war crimes.
This is heartbreaking
Hope all of them will be free soon and in true sense. Who is going to take responsibility of what they had to face idk but there are people that definitely have to pay for this
Fuck Israel FOREVER