AhlulBayt News Agency: Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, released on Saturday four female Israeli soldiers in return for 200 Palestinian prisoners, in keeping with the recent ceasefire agreement aimed at ending Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The four were led onto a podium in Gaza City in the presence of a large crowd of Palestinian citizens and dozens of resistance fighters from al-Qassam Brigades. The freed captives spontaneously waved and smiled before being led off, entering Red Cross vehicles and then being transported to the Israeli occupation forces.
The released soldiers – Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag – were all stationed at an observation post near the Gaza border when Palestinian resistance fighters from Gaza kidnaped them during the cross-border “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation on October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners were seen departing from the Israeli Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank soon after the four Israeli captives were freed. The Israeli prison service said all the 200 Palestinian prisoners had been released.
Those Palestinian prisoners include people serving life sentences for their involvement in resistance activities against the Israeli occupation. Around 70 of them will be deported to Egypt and 16 others will be transported to Gaza.
The remaining 114 prisoners have been transported by the Red Cross on buses to the West Bank City of Ramallah, where crowds of Palestinians rallied in the streets to welcome them.
The Gaza European Hospital in southern Khan Yunis has made preparations to receive the prisoners expected to be released into the war-torn coastal enclave, according to Palestinian media sources.
In a related incident, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed on Friday the house of Palestinian prisoner Zakariya az-Zubeidi in Jenin refugee camp and brutalized his family members. He is slated for release today as part of the prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.
Zubeidi is a noted resistance fighter from the Fatah Movement’s armed wing, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and was kidnaped and jailed by the Israeli army several times.
According to local sources, Israeli forces broke into Zubeidi’s house in al-Jaberiyat neighborhood in Jenin, handcuffed his wife and his daughter Alaa, and blindfolded his 14-year-old son Ayham.
The sources added that the IOF detained Zubeidi’s family in the house yard for several hours.
The IOF also broke into and ransacked the houses of Zubeidi’s brothers, Yehya and Jibril, causing considerable damage to them during its raid in Jenin.
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