369 Palestinian hostages released on Saturday by Israel under the Gaza ceasefire agreement have arrived in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank city.
The freed prisoners, dressed in traditional keffiyeh scarves, were lifted onto the crowd’s shoulders.
Many in the crowd waved yellow Fatah flags, which rule the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli Prison Service confirmed it had freed 369 prisoners from the Ofer and Kziot prisons near Ramallah and Gaza respectively, after transferring them “from several prisons across the country”.
Among those released in Ramallah Saturday was Amir Abu Radaha, who had spent almost 32 years in jail.
Earlier Saturday, images broadcast on Israeli public television showed Palestinian prisoners ahead of their release wearing sweatshirts featuring the prison service logo, a Star of David, and the slogan: “We do not forget and we do not forgive.”
In a statement, Hamas condemned the Arabic slogan on the prisoners’ sweatshirts, calling it “racist” and a “flagrant violation of humanitarian laws”.
Earlier Saturday, during the release of three Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis, militants forced the captives to address onlookers in Hebrew in a choreographed release where signs carried messages in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
The prisoners were freed in exchange for three Israelis held hostage in Gaza.
It was the latest such swap under a January 19 ceasefire deal that ended more than 15 months of war ignited by Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel had warned Hamas that it must free three living hostages this weekend or face a resumption of the war, after the group said it would pause releases over what it described as Israeli violations of the Gaza truce.
