7:24 p.m. ET, November 25, 2023
39 Palestinian detainees and prisoners were released Saturday as part of Israel-Hamas deal
People crowd around a bus carrying released Palestinian prisoners near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday.
Ammar Awad/Reuters
Palestinians have gathered in front of the Al-Bireh municipality building near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, where some of the 39 detainees and prisoners released by Israel as part of a deal with Hamas are expected to arrive shortly.
The Israeli Prison Authority confirmed that all 39 had left their places of incarceration —Damon and Megiddo prisons in Israel, and Ofer prison in the West Bank — earlier Saturday.
Of those, 33 are teenage boys and six are women.
Based on information from the Israeli Prison Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an NGO promoting prisoners’ rights, CNN assesses that 15 of those released on Saturday were serving sentences, mostly for attacks on Israelis.
The other 24 were held in what is called administrative detention, which means they were held without knowing any charges against them, and without any legal process.
Israa Al-Jaabis reunites with her family in East Jerusalem early Sunday after being released from an Israeli prison.
Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu/Getty Images
Violence near one of the prisons: Three boys were shot and wounded with live ammunition near Ofer prison earlier Saturday evening, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
A CNN team on the ground near Beitunia crossing, which is about 200 meters away from the Israeli prison, had witnessed many Palestinians waiting in the area for the expected release of the prisoners. The team heard three gunshots over the course of an hour and witnessed three boys being carried away on a stretcher over the same time period.
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