(27 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – 27 February 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Buses arriving
2. Man getting out of bus, throwing prison t-shirt on the floor and stamping on it
3. Stream of men quickly getting off bus
4. Men hanging out window of second bus, making victory sign and shouting
5. Bus waiting to let freed prisoners out
6. Various of recently freed prisoners hugging loved ones
7. Men cheering recently released prisoner
8. Loved ones hugging freed prisoner
STORYLINE:
Buses carrying hundreds of Palestinian prisoners arrived in the Gaza city of Khan Younis on Thursday morning to a jubilant crowd, with one man throwing off his Israeli prison service t-shirt and stamping it into the ground.
Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages to the Red Cross earlier on Thursday in exchange for the prisoner release, days before the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was to end.
An Israeli security official confirmed that Hamas handed the hostages’ bodies to the Red Cross. Israel said the caskets were delivered with the help of Egyptian mediators through an Israeli crossing and an identification process had begun.
Friends and family greeted the released prisoners, hugging them and snapping photos.
Israel had delayed the release of over 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it called the cruel treatment of hostages during their handover by Hamas.
The militant group has called the delay a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and said talks on a second phase aren’t possible until the Palestinians are freed.
Among those scheduled to leave Israel early Thursday were hundreds of detainees arrested from Gaza, held on suspicion of militancy after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, without charge for months.
They include 445 men, 21 teenagers and one woman, according to lists shared by Palestinian officials that did not specify their ages.
Only around 50 Palestinians were released into the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem in this round.
Dozens sentenced to life over deadly attacks against Israelis will be exiled out of the Palestinian territories and taken to Egypt at least temporarily until other countries accept them.
The latest handovers would complete both sides’ obligations under the ceasefire’s first phase, during which Hamas returned 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
AP video by Mohammad Jahjouh
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