Israel frees 200 Palestinian prisoners

Israel has freed 200 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for four soldiers who were being held hostage by Hamas. Dozens of the prisoners had been serving life sentences in Israeli jails for alleged attacks against Israelis.

The Israeli prison service said that the prisoners had been freed from Ofer Prison near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and from another facility near Beersheba in southern Israel.

Israelis view them as terrorists, while many Palestinians say that they carried out legitimate resistance to Israeli rule or view them as victims of Israel’s decades-long occupation.

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at a Ramallah building to receive the prisoners home, pushing to get hold of their loved ones as they got out of the Red Cross buses, which were transporting them.

Some released prisoners, still wearing gray uniforms issued by the Israeli prison authority, were held on the shoulders of the chanting crowd.

“We leave our jail but the price is high for our freedom,” Mohammad Arda, one of the released prisoners told media

He assed that he is thinking about the families of the inmates we lost during the past year and a half.”