AhlulBayt News Agency: As part of a prisoner swap deal between the Palestinian resistance movement and the Israeli regime, 369 Palestinian detainees are set to be released on Saturday in exchange for three Israeli prisoners.
In a statement on Friday evening, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said that 333 Palestinians, who were kidnapped after October 7, 2023, will be freed in the sixth batch of the prisoner exchange deal.
It added that 25 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment will also be sent to Gaza or abroad, while ten others from the occupied West Bank and one from occupied al-Quds will be released as well.
The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, identified the three Israeli settlers who will be released as Sasha Alexander Trufanov, Sagi Dekel Han, and Yair Horn.
The Zionist regime and Hamas announced a three-phase ceasefire deal on January 15, following UN-endorsed indirect negotiations between the two sides, putting an end to over 15 months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Under the first phase of the deal, which began on January 19 and will last 42 days, a total of 33 Israeli prisoners will be released including women and those over 50. For each Israeli prisoner, between 30 and 50 Palestinians will be released by Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the group “forced” the Zionist regime to implement the prisoner swap agreement despite the occupation’s “usual procrastination.”
“Our demands are clear and embody the occupation implementing the agreement and committing to it, and we received new guarantees to achieve this,” Qassem said.
“We forced the occupation to implement what was required of it despite its usual procrastination, and the mediators in Qatar and Egypt are communicating with the U.S. administration to implement the humanitarian protocol.”
He added that Hamas remains committed to the ceasefire agreement and implementing all its stages according to the scheduled dates.
Further rebuking the Israeli regime’s delays in implementing its part of the deal, Qassem said the handover of the occupation prisoners has been carried out smoothly and in “a civilized manner that reflects Palestinian culture and the teachings of our religion.”
“We seek to implement the ceasefire agreement without any change and will not allow [changes] to happen, no matter the pressures,” the spokesman said.
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