Palestinian Families Are Finally Reuniting After Israel Released 240 Women And Children It Jailed
The released were chosen out of a list of 300 held Palestinians, all women and children, 80% of whom were not formally charged.
Families in Palestine are finally reuniting after 240 Palestinians were released by Israel as part of a deal for brief pause in fighting with Hamas.
As part of the prisoner exchange, Israel released 240 Palestinian women and children over seven days.
Videos on social media showed celebrations in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and emotional families reuniting in their homes.
The released 240 were chosen out of a list of 300 held Palestinians, all women and children.
287 out of the 300 people listed are children below the age of 18, with the youngest being just 14 years old.
Nearly 80 percent of the people on the list were not formally charged, according to Al Jazeera.
Other notable releases included Israa Jaabis, a woman who was seriously burned in an explosion in her car.
Israel has accused Jaabis of detonating a car bomb, but her family said the explosion had happened due to a fault in her car.
Ahed Tamimi, the young Palestinian woman activist who slapped an Israeli soldier in 2017, was also released after she was arrested on Nov. 2 during Israeli raids on the occupied West Bank.
Those released said they were denied food, medicine and sleep and had been tortured.
Upon his release, one teen named Mohammed Nazzal told Al Jazeera, with his hand in a bandage, that Israeli prisoner officers broke his hand a week prior to his release and did not provide him treatment.
The people who were released said Israel banned them from celebrating, saying they would re-arrest them.
Ahmad Salayme, another 14-year-old teen who was released, said that Israeli authorities told him he was not allowed to leave his house or raise any signs of banners or he would be re-arrested.
His family said their house had been searched several times prior to his release.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said that Israel has arrested more Palestinians than it has released since the beginning of the pause
Israel has increased its raids on the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7, arresting more than 5,000 Palestinians.
In fact, Israel has doubled the number of Palestinians held in its prisons from 5,000 to more than 10,000 in the days since Oct. 7 alone.
According to Al Jazeera, for every Palestinian prisoner released, another Palestinian is arrested.
Since it began occupying East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967, Israel has arrested an estimated one million Palestinians, according to the United Nations.
Many of those arrested are being held without formal charges.
