In the darkness of the night, phone screens glow. No one in the occupied West Bank wanted to miss the triumphant arrival of Palestinian women and children released from Israeli jails on Friday.
A total of 39 Palestinian prisoners (24 women and 15 teenagers) have returned to their homes, under a truce that also allowed the release of 13 Israeli hostages, kidnapped on 7 October by the Islamist movement Hamas.
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Under the slogans, in the midst of fireworks, in a cloud of keffiyehs, Palestinian flags and various movements including the green flag of Hamas, the freed detainees embraced their families and wept in the arms of emotional relatives.
In Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians celebrated the "heroes" locked up "for the freedom of all Palestinians," a speaker said into a sputtering microphone.
⚡️ "Thank you, thank you, #Gaza." chants of young men in Beitunia, Ramallah, while receiving prisoners liberated by the resistance deal. pic.twitter.com/kCN3wNjF9q
— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) November 24, 2023
The evening had begun with screams. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and the Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least three gunshot wounds.
Further north, in Balata, the bustling refugee camp of Nablus, the large city in the northern West Bank, the "heroes' exit" also cheered the crowds.
But no one forgets "our brothers who are resisting and holding on in Gaza, in Jenin," said one speaker. The occupied West Bank city experienced its deadliest day on 9 November (14 deaths) since at least 2005, according to the UN, which has been tracking deaths in the territory since then.
200 Palestinians killed in West Bank
While the war has been raging for seven weeks in Gaza, violence has also flared up in the West Bank. On Friday morning, a 22-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead by the Israeli army in Jericho, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Since the bloody Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians according to Israeli authorities, and about 240 hostages, some 15,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the Hamas government.
At the same time, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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Palestinian NGOs say about 3000,7 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the war. They also announced the deaths of six prisoners in custody since <> October.
And in the Occupied Territories, the prison experience is one of the most shared: according to the NGO Addameer, about 800,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967 and the beginning of the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The prisoners' advocacy organization currently lists 200 Palestinian children and 84 women in Israeli jails, out of more than 7,000 prisoners.
"My liberation came at the price of the blood of the martyrs"
A few miles from the West Bank, East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, is experiencing an even different evening. The joy is expressed in a low voice, under the gaze of the Israeli police.
"The police are in our house and preventing people from coming to see us," said Fatina Salman. For any celebration of the liberated prisoners is forbidden in Jerusalem.
Her daughter Malak, 23, was arrested on her way to school seven years ago for trying to stab a police officer in Jerusalem. She was incarcerated in February 2016 and was not due to be released until 2025. But tonight, she will sleep at home in her neighborhood of Beit Safafa. "My daughter is weak, she hasn't eaten since yesterday," she said.
VIDEO. Israel-Hamas war: 24 hostages, including 13 Israelis, and 39 Palestinian prisoners freed
Marah Bakir, on the other hand, does not leave her mother in the family home in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The 24-year-old Palestinian, eight of whom have been in prison, gives a series of interviews in front of the cameras.
"I am happy, but my liberation came at the cost of the blood of the martyrs," she said, referring to the 15,000 dead in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas government.
Freedom "away from the four walls of the prison" is "magnificent," she said, a blue floral veil on her head. "I spent the end of my childhood and adolescence in prison, far from my parents and their hugs, but that's how it is with a state that oppresses us and leaves none of us alone."
His phone never stops ringing: relatives, friends who want to say a word as soon as possible. Then his mother brings him a glass of water and blows the whistle for the end of the media sequence. "Sorry, let her cool down a bit."