October 13, 2025 | 09:01 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Around 1,966 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel have reportedly boarded buses that will take them home, as reported by Sputnik on Monday, October 13, 2025, citing Antara.
The Russian news agency stated that the Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons as part of a ceasefire agreement with the Hamas resistance group.
The Hamas-managed Prisoners Media Office, as cited by Anadolu, said that the buses carrying the released prisoners from Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah, arrived in the occupied West Bank city of Beitunia.
The first convoy, consisting of 38 vehicles carrying prisoners released from the Negev Prison in southern Israel, also arrived in the Gaza Strip, the office said.
Footage as reported by Al Jazeera showed the Palestinian prisoners inside the bus as they were being transported to Ramallah, smiling and making victory signs.
The vehicles were surrounded by a crowd of people recording the event with their cell phones, while others waved Palestinian flags.
Before the release, an Israeli armored vehicle fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians gathered near Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, where hundreds had assembled to await the release of the prisoners, The Associated Press reported.
The Israeli flag-bearing vehicles approached the hill overlooking the prison as a drone flew overhead, dispersing the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The incident followed the circulation of leaflets warning that anyone showing support for the Palestinian prisoners could be arrested. Families of the Palestinian prisoners had gathered at the location in anticipation of the planned release.
Palestinian Prisoners Tortured
The released Palestinian prisoners are likely to have been in "horrific" conditions, as Palestinians in Israeli prisons have endured "brutal and violent torture," said academic Basil Farraj.
"We know that since October 7 [2023], while torture and violence will have been systematically practised inside Israeli prisons, these prisoners have been subjected to a brutal campaign," said Farraj, a professor at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, to Al Jazeera.
"They have been brutally beaten, tortured and violated. We’ve witnessed and heard stories of sexual violence."
Farraj stated that the condition of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons will continue, and the release of the prisoners "does not mean the end of the struggle" for others still in Israeli prisons.
The release came after Hamas handed over 20 living Israeli hostages based on the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the agreement last week, and the warring parties will implement the first phase of a peace plan in the Gaza Strip.
During this first phase, Hamas will release Israeli citizens it has held hostage, and Israel will withdraw its troops to the agreed-upon line in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) handed over the first seven hostages to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, as reported by the public broadcasting station Kan on Monday.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinian residents in Gaza, mostly women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.
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