Hostage swap brings hope to Palestinian prisoners’ family

A stone’s throw from the wall separating Israel and the occupied West Bank, the Shamasneh family is ready to welcome home two sons jailed for the past 34 years.

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Abdel Jawad and Mohammed are expected to be among the Palestinians freed from Israeli detention under the terms of the ceasefire agreement approved last week.

“Today I’m so happy the world feels too small for my joy,” declared their elated mother, 83-year-old Halima Shamasneh. “People called us and said: “Their names are on the list —they’re out, they’re registered’,” she said.

Israel has drawn up a list of 250 names of Palestinian prisoners expected to be released on Monday in exchange for the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Halima and her husband Yusef gathered their children and grandchildren in the family home in the West Bank village of Qatanna just north of Jerusalem, to celebrate the news. On the house’s walls, the many photos of the brothers before their arrest have faded in colour.

Their clothes reflect the 1980s, the decade in which the two men were arrested. Abdel Jawad is now 62 and Mohammed in his late 50s.

For the celebration, Halima wore her tabriz dress with a traditional Palestinian embroidery.

Yusef wore a suit, his head adorned with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf secured with an agal ring.

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