Beitunia: Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli detention on Monday under the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire agreement. The Hamas-run Prisoners' Media Office reported that buses carrying freed prisoners from Ofer Prison, located west of Ramallah, arrived in the town of Beitunia in the occupied West Bank.

According to Anadolu Agency, the official news agency Wafa confirmed that 96 prisoners serving high jail terms arrived in the town aboard two buses operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Additionally, the Prisoners' Media Office stated that 154 freed prisoners were deported to Egypt under the ceasefire deal.

The office further revealed that buses carrying more than 1,700 prisoners released from the Negev Prison in southern Israel also arrived in the Gaza Strip. Under the current deal, 250 prisoners serving life sentences and long prison terms, as well as 1,718 prisoners arrested from Gaza after October 7, 2023, were released.

Israel's Prison Service confirmed the release of 1,968 Palestinian prisoners from prisons under the Gaza ceasefire deal. An Anadolu reporter noted that the first group of freed detainees reached Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, for medical examinations.

Thousands of Palestinians gathered to welcome the freed prisoners, with hundreds congregating in hospital courtyards, while others waited outside for their arrival. The releases occurred after Hamas handed over 20 living Israeli hostages as part of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Friday under US President Donald Trump's plan to end a two-year Israeli war on the enclave. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have resulted in more than 67,800 Palestinian fatalities in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.