Relatives reunited

Joy and sorrow as Palestinians freed from Israeli jails

- William Christou Sufian Taha Ramallah

The police could not hold back the crowds.

As soon as they saw the Palestinian prisoners and detainees through the windows of the bus, hundreds of people who had gathered in front of a theatre in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank rushed forward, chanting the names of loved ones they had not seen for years and in some cases, decades.

The arrivals were gaunt, the sharp angles bearing freshly scabbed-over wounds. Loved ones hoisted them up on their shoulders with ease. One, swaddled in a Palestinian keffiyeh and splaying his fingers into a V for victory, was dropped before his mother, whose feet he began to kiss.

In total, 88 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons and sent to the occupied West Bank yesterday. The remaining group of nearly 2,000, which included about 1,700 Palestinians seized from Gaza during the war and held without charge, were sent back to Gaza, where a minority would travel on to neighbouring countries.

The prisoners and detainees were released by Israel a few hours after all living Israeli hostages were returned from Gaza. Prior to yesterday's release, 11,056 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons, according to the Israeli NGO HaMoked. At least 3,500 of those were held in administrative detention without trial. An Israeli military database has indicated that only a quarter of those detained in Gaza were classified as fighters.

The geopolitical implication of the release was far from families' minds in Ramallah yesterday; most were celebrating a release they never thought would come.

Most of the men returning to the West Bank were serving life sentences and many were charged with violent crimes including murder and deadly attacks against Israelis.