Media reported the release of the first 90 Palestinian prisoners by Israel
Israel has released the first 90 Palestinian prisoners. This was reported on January 20 by The Times of Israel with reference to the Israeli Prison Department.
It is noted that before that they were taken to the prison "Ofer", where Israeli security forces and representatives of the Red Cross checked the identity of each prisoner and conducted a medical examination. Among those released were 69 women, 12 men and nine teenagers.
Among the prisoners were 78 West Bankers who were released at a checkpoint near the prison. The remaining 12 were taken to East Jerusalem.
According to the newspaper, they were all convicted on articles such as incitement and disorderly conduct.
The Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for three Israeli hostages. Hamas handed over Gonen, Damari and Steinbrecher to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier in the day. The organization soon handed over the three hostages to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
The girls soon returned to Israel and met their families. They were also taken to Sheba Medical Center in the suburbs of Tel Aviv for medical examinations.
The Gaza ceasefire agreement was announced on January 15. The next day, the Defense Ministry and the IDF began preparations to implement the agreement. In particular, the State Defense Ministry's Directorate of Checkpoints and the Design Department were involved in the implementation of the deal in order to speed up logistics.
Theceasefire regime in the Gaza Strip began on the morning of January 19, as agreed upon by both sides and mediators. The Israeli government approved the agreement with the Palestinian Hamas movement on January 17 following a six-hour meeting.
Later, on January 19, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid bin Mohammed al-Ansari said that the U.S., Egypt and Qatar would begin consultations to agree on the details of the Gaza deal between Israel and Palestinian Hamas on the 16th day after the cease-fire, that is, on February 3.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.
