SALFIT, February 15, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces Saturday evening stormed the family house of a recently released prisoner in the occupied West Bank city of Salfit over public displays of joy, according to local sources.
They said that the occupation forces broke into the house of Said Musa Dhyab Shtayyeh, 43, who was released as part of the sixth batch of prisoners and exiled under the Gaza ceasefire agreement and forced all relatives and visitors to leave at gunpoint.
Three Israeli captives were released to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday, while Israel followed by starting the release of 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees under the fragile ceasefire agreement.
The first bus carrying freed Palestinian prisoners and detainees left Israel's Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank. The bus arrived in Ramallah to a cheering crowd, with some waving Palestinian flags.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said that some of the freed Palestinian prisoners are in extremely poor health. Prisoners previously released from Israeli jails have borne signs of severe torture, disease, and starvation.
Shortly after, a convoy of buses carrying 333 prisoners freed from Israeli prisons arrived at the European Hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, among them were a number of elderly prisoners, including a 70-year-old man.
The PPS said 24 of the released prisoners are expected to be deported. Nearly all of the remaining 345 Palestinians are "prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7", the group said.
Among the released prisoners are 36 individuals serving life sentences, many of whom have spent over 20 years in Israeli prisons.
Saturday's exchange marked the sixth swap since the ceasefire took effect on 19 January.
Israel’s 15-month genocidal aggression on Gaza killed at least 48,239 Palestinians and injured over 111,676 others.
Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
K.F.
