RAMALLAH, Oct 13 (KUNA) -- The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club announced that the Israeli occupation forces released on Monday 1,968 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life sentences.
In a joint statement, the Commission and the Club said that the releases come as part of the first phase of US President Donald Trump's plan for ceasefire in Gaza Strip.
They were released in two batches: first comprises 96 prisoners who were freed from the Israeli occupation's Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah and the second comprises 154 prisoners serving life sentences, who were transferred from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, and 1,718 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were detained after October 7, 2023.
The statement noted that this deal is the third of kind since the outbreak of the genocide war, noting that in November 2023, 240 prisoners were released in several batches, and in January and February 2025, 1,777 prisoners were released, bringing the total number of Palestinian prisoners released in the three deals to 3,985.
Since the outbreak of the genocide war, Palestinian prisoners in the occupation's prisons and camps have been subjected to a series of crimes against humanity, most notably physical and psychological torture, deliberate starvation, and denial of medical treatment and healthcare, statement added.
Earlier, Hamas handed over the remaining Israeli captives to the Red Cross in two batches. They added that the handover of the bodies of the deceased captives will take more time, due to the difficulty of retrieving them as a result of the destruction caused by the two-year genocide war.
According to prisoners' organizations, the number of detainees held inside Israeli jails exceeds 11,000, suffering from catastrophic and dire conditions, including torture, starvation, and systematic medical neglect, which has led to the deaths of several detainees.
The total number of Palestinian detainees sentenced to life imprisonment has reached 350, and 40 detainees have been indicted pending life sentences. There are 53 female prisoners, including three from Gaza, along with two minors.
Approximately 400 child prisoners are held in Ofer and Megiddo prisons, while the number of detainees held without trial has reached approximately 3,380 as of October.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli forces have committed genocidal crimes in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of more than 67,806 people, the injury of more than 170,000 others, most of them children and women, and a famine that has claimed the lives of 463 Palestinians, including 157 children. (end) nq.ahs