On Friday, Israel will release 39 Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank in exchange for 13 hostages due to be freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, said a Palestinian official. Among them are 24 women and 15 teenage males.
The prisoners will be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross at Ofer military jail of Israel around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), said Qadura Fares, Palestinian commissioner for inmates. All of them are from the occupied Jerusalem or West Bank.
This would overlap with the planned handover at the Gaza-Egypt border of 13 women and children who were among some 240 people taken captive by Hamas gunfighters during a fatal October 7 rampage. The attack took place in southern Israel. Hamas has said that its attack was in response to the blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel.
“After the Red Cross receives the (Palestinian) prisoners, the ones from Jerusalem will go to Jerusalem and the ones from the West Bank will gather in Betunia municipal council where their families will be waiting,” Fares informed Reuters.
The inmate freedom was part of an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire that began in the morning. Globally, the war has sparked widespread protests that have focused on a ceasefire.