The West Bank occupied by Israel erupted in celebrations After 90 Palestinian prisoners, most of them women, were released from Israeli prisons as part of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Families in the West Bank waited until early Monday to receive their loved ones, most of whom were detained without charges.

The ceasefire, which ended the Israeli war on Gaza that lasted more than 15 months, also saw the release of prisoners. Three Israeli prisoners. more Prisoners The prisoners are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Here’s what we know about Palestinian prisoners Who were released:

Who are the most prominent Palestinians released?

The prisoners – 69 women and 21 children – were released at around 1am on Monday (23:00 GMT on Sunday). They were transported to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Red Cross buses.

Only eight of 90 prisoners They were arrested before October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led Palestinian groups carried out attacks in southern Israel. The attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 people, the capture of about 250 others, and sparked the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israel killed more than 47,000 Palestinians during its attack on Gaza, sparking criticism for using disproportionate force against civilians and targeting hospitals and schools. It also killed more than 850 Palestinians and arrested more than 7,000 in often violent raids across the West Bank.

Khalida Jarrar, leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and feminist activist, was one of the most prominent female prisoners released.

Jarrar has been serving a prison sentence in Israel since 2015 for speaking out about the rights of Palestinian prisoners and belonging to a “banned” party. Israel considers the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine a “terrorist” group.

In a 2016 statement, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Jarrar’s repeated arrests were part of a broader crackdown by Israel on nonviolent political opposition to its half-century military occupation of Palestinian territories.

Her last arrest was on December 26, 2023.

The first arrest of a Palestinian came in March 1989 during a protest on the occasion of International Women’s Day at Birzeit University in the West Bank. She was a master’s student at the time.

Jarrar emerged as a feminist leader as she fought gender stereotypes and worked to empower women entrepreneurs in the West Bank. She did community work in Nablus, where she helped clean public places and improve public schools. She was later elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council.

She served as director of the Addameer Association for Prisoner Care and Human Rights from 1994 to 2006.

“There is this double feeling that we are experiencing: on the one hand, this feeling of freedom that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain resulting from the loss of so many Palestinian martyrs,” Jarrar told the Associated Press news agency after. She was released.

Among the prominent female prisoners released was journalist Rula Hassanein, an editor at the Watan Media Network based in Ramallah. She was arrested by Israeli forces on March 19 as part of a mass arrest campaign of Palestinians.

Hassanein (30 years old) was tried before an Israeli military court in the Israeli Ofer prison. She was charged with incitement on social media over posts that reportedly included retweets on X and her expression of frustration over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

How many more prisoners will be released?

The first phase of the ceasefire is scheduled to last in three stages for 42 days. During this period, 33 Israeli prisoners are scheduled to be released, including female and male civilians, in addition to children and elderly civilians.

In return, up to 1,900 Palestinian prisoners will be released.

On the first day of the exchange, Three Israeli prisoners Romi Gonen (24 years old), Emily Damari (28 years old), and Doron Steinbrecher (31 years old) were released from Gaza.

Before their release, it was believed that about 100 prisoners remained in Gaza. It is still unclear how many people are still alive.

The remaining prisoners, besides the 33 scheduled to be released in the first phase, are reportedly male soldiers who will be released in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.

How many Palestinians are in Israeli prisons?

Before the release of the 90 prisoners on Monday, there were 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, and this does not include those detained in Gaza during the past 15 months of the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association.

“If they do little to challenge the status quo, they will face prison,” says Al Jazeera’s Nidaa Ibrahim. Ibrahim said that Israel imprisoned many children on charges related to throwing stones at Israeli forces.

“List of prisoners, hundreds of names released, most of them in service Administrative detention“It is a tactic used by Israel to keep people in prison indefinitely without bringing charges against them,” Ibrahim said.

Prison conditions

“I left hell and now I am in heaven. We are all out of hell. They were assaulting us, beating us and firing tear gas in our direction,” Abdelaziz Al-Atawneh, a boy who was released from an Israeli prison on Monday, told the media.

“There is no food, no sweets, and no salt,” he said.

Israeli prisons are famous Mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners Observers commented on Jarrar’s emaciated appearance compared to her appearance at the time of her recent arrest.

UN agencies, investigators and human rights organizations have documented arbitrary arrests and inhuman and degrading treatment, Torture and killing of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

On the other hand, the prisoners who were released and sent to Israel appear to be in good health, Israeli media reported.

The Israeli army said in a statement that the three prisoners “have just arrived with their mothers to the hospital, where they will be reunited with the rest of their families and receive medical treatment.” The three released prisoners are in the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

In April, Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh, head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, died in Israel’s Ofer Prison. His family said that Al-Bursh was like that To be tortured to death.

He added: “The release of Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, does not mean that the conditions of captivity have changed. “Israeli negotiators insisted that nothing would change inside Israeli prisons,” Basil Farraj, an assistant professor at Birzeit University, told Al Jazeera.

“This is actually very worrying, and explains why families gather to receive their loved ones because they know the hell that is [the prisoners] “What I was exposed to was brutal.”

Farraj added: “This indicates that this detention system aims to break Palestinian prisoners.” He is deliberately trying to break their spirit and spirit.”