BEITUNIA, West Bank: Over three dozen Palestinian prisoners returned home to a hero’s welcome in the occupied West Bank on Friday following their release from Israeli prisons as part of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The procession of freed prisoners, some accused of minor offenses and others convicted in attacks, at a checkpoint outside of Jerusalem stoked massive crowds of Palestinians into a chanting, clapping, hand-waving, screaming frenzy.
Fifteen dazed young men, all in stained grey prison sweatsuits and looking gaunt with exhaustion, glided through the streets on the shoulders of their teary-eyed fathers as fireworks turned the night sky to blazing color and patriotic Palestinian pop music blared.
Some of those released were draped in Palestinian flags, others in the green flags of Hamas. They flashed victory signs as they crowd-surfed.
“I have no words, I have no words,” said newly released 17-year-old Jamal Brahma, searching for something to say to the hordes of jostling journalists and thousands of chanting Palestinians, many in national dress. “Thank God.”
Tears fell down his father Khalil Brahma’s cheeks as he brought his son down from his shoulders and looked him in the eye for the first time in seven months. Israeli forces had arrested Jamal at his home in the Palestinian city of Jericho last spring and detained him without charge or trial.
“I just want to be his father again,” he said.
The release of the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails came just hours after two dozen hostages, including 13 Israelis, were released from captivity in Gaza in the initial exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners during the four-day cease-fire that started Friday.
Under the deal, Hamas is to release at least 50 hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners, over the four days. Israel said the truce can be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed.
Although the atmosphere was festive in the town of Beitunia near Israel’s hulking Ofer Prison in the West Bank, people were on edge.
The Israeli government has ordered police to shut down celebrations over the release. Israeli security forces at one point unleashed tear gas canisters on the crowds, sending young men, old women and small children sprinting away as they wept and screamed in pain.
“The army is trying to take this moment away from us but they can’t,” Mays Foqaha said as she tumbled into the arms of her newly released 18-year-old friend, Nour Al-Taher from Nablus, who was arrested during a protest in September at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. ”This is our day of victory.”
The Palestinian detainees freed Friday included 24 women, some of whom had been sentenced to years-long prison terms over attempted stabbings and other attacks on Israeli security forces. Others had been accused of incitement on social media.
There were also the 15 male teenagers, most of them charged with stone-throwing and “supporting terrorism,” a broadly defined accusation that underscores Israel’s long-running crackdown on young Palestinian men as violence surges in the occupied territory.
For families on both sides of the conflict, news of the exchange — perhaps the first hopeful moment in 49 days of war — stirred a bittersweet jumble of joy and anguish.
“As a Palestinian, my heart is broken for my brothers in Gaza, so I can’t really celebrate,” said Abdulqader Khatib, a UN worker whose 17-year-old son, Iyas, was placed last year in “administrative detention,” without charges or trial and based on secret evidence. “But I am a father. And deep inside, I am very happy.”
Israel is now holding an all-time high of 2,200 Palestinians in administrative detention, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, in a controversial policy that Israel defends as a counter-terrorism measure.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas took roughly 240 Israeli and foreign citizens hostage and killed 1,200 Israelis in its unprecedented rampage through southern Israel, Palestinians have wondered about the fate of their own prisoners.
Israel has a history of agreeing to lopsided exchanges. In 2011, Hamas got Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a single captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit.
A prisoner release touches Palestinian society to its core. Almost every Palestinian has a relative in jail – or has been there himself. Human rights groups estimate that over 750,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967.
Whereas Israel views them as terrorists, Palestinians refer to them by the Arabic word for prisoners of war, and devote a good chunk of public funds to supporting them and their families. Israel and the US have condemned the grants to prisoner families as an incentive for violence.
“These kinds of prisoner exchanges are often the only hope families have to see their sons or fathers released before many years go by,” said Amira Khader, international advocacy officer at Addameer, a group supporting Palestinian prisoners. “It’s what they live for, it’s like a miracle from God.”
Since the Hamas attack, Israel has escalated a months-long West Bank crackdown on Palestinians suspected of ties to Hamas and other militant groups. Many prisoners are convicted by military courts, which prosecute Palestinians with a conviction rate of more than 99 percent. Rights groups say Palestinians are often denied due process and forced into confessions.
There are now 7,200 Palestinians in Israeli prison, said Qadura Fares, the director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, with over 2,000 arrested since Oct. 7 alone.
On Friday in Beitunia, a lanky and pimpled 16-year-old, Aban Hammad, stood unmoving, looking shaken by the tumult of tears, hugs and pro-Hamas chants around him. It was his first glimpse of the world after a year in prison for throwing stones in the northern town of Qalqilya. He was freed even though he had eight months of his sentence left to serve.
He turned toward his father, wrapping him into a hug. “Look, I’m almost bigger than you now,” he said.
Palestinian families rejoice over release of minors and women in wartime prisoner swap
https://arab.news/9bkbb
Palestinian families rejoice over release of minors and women in wartime prisoner swap
- The procession of freed prisoners, some accused of minor offenses, stoked massive crowds of Palestinians into a chanting, screaming frenzy
- Fifteen dazed young men, all in stained grey prison sweatsuits, glided through the streets on shoulders of their teary-eyed fathers amid fireworks
Qatar says ‘we will need time’ for Gaza ceasefire
- The ceasefire proposal envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely
DOHA: Qatar said Tuesday more time was needed for negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism about a possible breakthrough.
“I don’t think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said as indirect negotiations continued into a third day in Doha.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, meanwhile, on his third visit to the White House since Trump returned to power.
Trump, who is pushing for a ceasefire, expressed confidence a deal could be reached, saying: “I don’t think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well.”
Qatar, a mediator along with the United States and Egypt, said the meetings in Doha were focused on a framework for the talks, while a Palestinian official close to the negotiations said no breakthrough had been achieved so far.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was set to join the talks in Doha this week.
On the ground, five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza — one of the deadliest days this year for Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory.
Gaza’s civil defense meanwhile reported 29 killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday.
Israel and Hamas began the latest round of negotiations on Sunday, with representatives seated in separate rooms within the same building.
At the White House, sitting across from Netanyahu, Trump said Hamas was willing to end the Gaza conflict, now in its 22nd month.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump said when asked if ongoing clashes would derail talks.
An Israeli official accompanying Netanyahu to Washington said the proposal under discussion was “80-90 percent of what Israel wanted.”
“I believe that with military and political pressure, all the hostages can be returned,” the official told Israeli media.
According to Ariel Kahana of Israel Hayom daily, “President Trump and his advisers are currently exerting considerable effort to reach an agreement that would lead to the release of the hostages and could even end the war in Gaza.”
However, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposed negotiations with Hamas, saying that “there is no need to negotiate with those who murder our fighters; they must be torn to shreds.”
Netanyahu described the loss of five soldiers in Gaza as a “difficult morning” and mourned “our heroic soldiers who risked their lives in the battle to defeat Hamas and free all our hostages.”
Israeli military correspondents reported the deaths occurred due to improvised explosive devices near Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.
According to the Israeli military, 450 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27, 2023.
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 29 people killed in Israeli strikes across the territory, including three children.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, said nine of those were killed in a drone strike on a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza.
“I was in front of my tent preparing breakfast for my four children – beans and a bit of dry bread. Suddenly, there was an explosion,” said Shaimaa Al-Shaer, 30, who lives in the camp.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military when contacted by AFP.
The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people.
While Israel has the full backing of the Trump administration, the US leader has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza and said on Sunday he believed there was a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week.
“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier said.
Hamas was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,575 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.
Syria seeks European help as forest wildfires rage
- The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought
DAMASCUS: Syria’s minister of emergencies and disaster management on Tuesday requested support from the European Union to battle wildfires that have swept through a vast stretch of forested land.
The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.
Neighbouring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.
“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed Al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday.
“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”
An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland — more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover — have burned, OCHA told AFP.
At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.
Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance,” Saleh said.
Seven months after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, Syria continues to face the repercussions of its 14-year civil war, which include explosive remnants scattered across the country.
With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”
Israel far-right minister demands end to Gaza ceasefire talks
- Minister calls for ‘total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement’ in the Gaza Strip
- Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory
JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call back a delegation conducting indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall the delegation that went to negotiate with the Hamas murderers in Doha,” Ben Gvir said in a post on X on the third day of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Instead, the minister who lives in a West Bank settlement called for “total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement” in the Gaza Strip.
He called these measures “the keys to total victory, not a reckless deal that would release thousands of terrorists and withdraw the (Israeli army) from areas captured with the blood of our soldiers.”
A Palestinian official close to the talks said on Tuesday that the talks were ongoing, with a focus on “the mechanisms for implementation, particularly the clauses related to withdrawal and humanitarian aid.”
Netanyahu traveled to Washington for his third visit since Trump’s return to power, where the US president on Monday voiced confidence that a deal could be reached.
The Israeli leader ruled out a full Palestinian state, insisting Israel would “always” keep security control over the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory.
According to the UN, 82 percent of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or displacement orders.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack resulted in 1,219 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Of the 251 people abducted that day, 49 are still hostages in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army.
At least 57,523 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The figures are deemed reliable by the UN.
South Sudan’s president fires army chief after seven months in post
- No reason was given for the firing of army chief Paul Nang Majok
NAIROBI: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has fired the country’s army chief after seven months in the post and named a replacement, according to an announcement on state radio.
No reason was given for the firing of Paul Nang Majok in the announcement late on Monday. Majok had been in the post since December. The announcement said Kiir had appointed Dau Aturjong as the Chief of Defense Forces.
Majok was in charge of the army while fighting raged between the army and the White Army, an ethnic militia largely comprising Nuer youths, triggering the country’s latest political crisis.
“There has been a tradition that when you are appointed, or reassigned there are no reasons (given) for getting appointed and there are no reasons given for getting relieved. It is normal,” said Lul Ruai Koang, South Sudan army spokesperson.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 deal ended the five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but violence between rival communities flares frequently.
In March, First Vice President Riek Machar was put under house arrest, stirring fears of renewed conflict.
Information Minister Michael Makuei said the arrest was due to Machar contacting his supporters and “agitating them to rebel against the government with the aim of disrupting peace so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes back to war.”
Machar’s party has previously denied government accusations that it backs the White Army, which clashed with the army in the northeastern town of Nasir in March. In May, South Sudan’s army said it had recaptured the town from the White Army.
Two killed in attack off Yemen as Houthis claim they sank Greek ship
- The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C has 22 crew members and armed guards on board
- Ship was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speedboats
ATHENS: Two crew members of the Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated, bulk carrier Eternity C were killed after an attack by sea drones and speedboats off Yemen on Monday evening, Liberia's shipping delegation told a meeting of the UN shipping agency IMO on Tuesday.
The deaths, the first since June 2024, bring the total number of seafarers killed in attacks on vessels in the Red Sea to six.
Monday’s attack 50 nautical miles southwest of the port of Hodeidah was the second strike against merchant vessels in the vital shipping corridor since November 2024, said an official at the European Union´s Operation Aspides, assigned to help protect Red Sea shipping.
The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C with 22 crew members – 21 Filipinos and one Russian – and armed guards on board, was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speedboats, sources said.
At least two crew members were seriously injured, its manager, Cosmoship Management, said. The vessel’s bridge was hit and telecommunications were impacted, a company official said.
Maritime security sources said the vessel, which was unladen, has suffered severe damage and is currently listing. The crew was ordered to abandon the ship, but the lifeboats had been destroyed, two sources said.
The ship was adrift, an Aspides official said. At the time of the incident, no warship of the Aspides mission was close to the vessel.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, so far.
Earlier on Monday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack on the Greek-operated MV Magic Seas bulk carrier off southwest Yemen. The raid involved gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from eight skiffs as well as missiles and four uncrewed surface vessels.
The 19 crew were forced to abandon the Liberian-flagged vessel as it was taking on water. They were picked up by a passing ship and have arrived safely in Djibouti, sources said.
The Houthis said they sunk the vessel. But Michael Bodouroglou, a representative of Stem Shipping, one of the ship’s commercial managers, said there was no independent verification.
Growing operational risk
The crew had reported fires at the vessel’s forepeak, in the bow. The engine room and at least two holds were flooded, and there was no electricity.
Aspides had earlier warned of a risk of explosion in the ship’s vicinity.
Since Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Houthis have been attacking Israel and vessels in the Red Sea in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has struck Houthi targets in response, launching strikes on Monday for the first time in nearly a month. A US-Houthi ceasefire deal in May did not include Israel.
The latest attacks highlight a growing operational risk to commercial operators whose vessels have called at Israeli ports, Maritime security firm Diaplous said.
Magic Seas was carrying iron and fertilizers from China to Turkiye, a voyage that appeared low-risk as it had nothing to do with Israel, Bodouroglou said, adding that Stem Shipping had received no warning of the attack.
But the fleet of Allseas Marine, Magic Seas’ other commercial manager, had made calls to Israeli ports over the past year, according to analysis by UK-based maritime risk management company Vanguard Tech.
“These factors put the Magic Seas at an extreme risk of being targeted,” said Ellie Shafik, head of intelligence with Vanguard Tech.
The manager of ETERNITY C is also affiliated with vessels that have made calls to Israeli ports, security sources said.
John Xylas, chairman of the dry bulk shipping association Intercargo, said the crew were “innocent people, simply doing their jobs, keeping global trade moving.”
“No one at sea should ever face such violence,” he said.
