Videos on social media showed hundreds of Palestinians celebrating.
Sunday night, ninety Palestinian terrorists were released in exchange for the three Israeli hostages – Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari who were released from Hamas captivity earlier in the day.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Palestinian prisoners had been transferred from various prisons across Israel to the Ofer Prison near Jerusalem where they underwent medical examinations and security checks before being released.
The International Red Cross used charter buses to transfer 78 prisoners to the Bitunya checkpoint in the West Bank and Israeli police handled the transfer of the other 12 prisoners to east Jerusalem.
This exchange was the first phase of a broader deal signed last week that promises the release of 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas for 1,900 Palestinian prisoners over a 6 week period, BBC News reports.
An Israeli official was quoted by Channel 12 as saying the Red Cross was creating challenges in the transfer of the prisoners. “Red Cross personnel, for unclear reasons, are stalling and delaying the process of transferring Palestinian prisoners. They claim there are discrepancies in the lists, and it seems they want to portray Israel as failing to meet the agreed-upon timelines.”
The organization has failed to visit the Israeli hostages kept in tunnels under Gaza where they were kept for over 470 days. Previous hostages that were released were, sexually assaulted, abused, and malnourished.
Videos on social media showed hundreds of Palestinians in Bitunya, west of Ramallah, celebrating the release of the prisoners as a victory over Israel as they waved flags, cheered, and set off fireworks.
According to the head of the Shin Bet, over 82 percent of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit returned to terror activities. Most notable among them was Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas.
