Dozens of young people chant over and over again “Hamas, Hamas, Hamas!” The green of the flags of the fundamentalist militia prevails in the celebration that takes place in the West Bank for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. They are the first group of 33 released in exchange for Israeli hostages, agreed in parallel with the four-day truce in the war. Some of the beneficiaries thank and support the fundamentalist movement while they are feted by the people in the town of Betunia, where the Israeli prison of Ofer is located, where they were gathered before being released from prison.
“Israel is the country of injustice. Hamas is the greatest and the noblest,” says Hanan Barguti, 59, convinced, emphasizing with her stiff index finger as soon as she regains her freedom after three months behind bars. She wears Hamas emblems on her forehead and on her shoulders so there is no doubt who she supports. He can barely walk in the middle of the crowd. There are many who surround her and try to greet this woman who still keeps her four children in prison.
It is clear that the fundamentalist group, whose armed wing carried out the October 7 attack in Israel with 1,200 dead and which sparked the current conflict, has numerous and proud followers in the West Bank. This is traditional territory of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), but many of those released strut their stuff with their chests out for Hamas at the popular celebration on Friday evening.
“We moved forward despite the pain, despite the blood, despite the slaughter of children and women in Gaza and the homes that were destroyed and demolished. Hamas has given us more pride and dignity than the presidents of the entire world… The presidents of the world could not offer us freedom, but Hamas gave us freedom,” says Hanan Barguti at an improvised rally surrounded by her family and friends. dozens of young people who listen to her as if she were a popular leader.
Barghouti was arrested on September 6 by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank town of Kobar. Since then she was in the Israeli Damon women’s prison. There she should have remained under administrative detention until January 3, 2024, according to the order issued by the Israeli authorities, which accuses her of belonging to Hamas, and to which EL PAÍS has had access.
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Minutes before, with the nerves of hundreds of people on edge before the imminent arrival of the group of expresses, two workers unload two large speakers from a car in front of the Betunia City Council headquarters. They have to open a corridor for them to advance. It is clear that, despite Israel’s demand that there be no celebrations, no one stops the party. Some parents dress their children in the traditional kefiya Palestinian (handkerchief) with a white background and black squares. Several fireworks light up the sky.
At that moment when everyone present is warming up for the great welcome, the gusts of wind remind us that the Israeli army troops are nearby, releasing canisters of smoke. Gas fills everything and coughs become widespread along with itchy throat and difficulty breathing. Some fear that there may be a military incursion to stop the celebrations, but in the end there is none.
From early in the afternoon there were disturbances with the Israeli military stationed in front of the Ofer prison, where the 33 minors and women were handed over to the Red Cross. Another six regained freedom in Jerusalem, bringing the group’s total to 39. The pact provides for new releases until Monday in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Laith Othman, 17, is the first of the prisoners to advance along the central street of Betunia that leads to the Town Hall. He comments, without getting off the shoulders of the person carrying him in triumph and while he greets those present in a bullfighter style as he leaves through the front door, that Israel threatened to take them back to jail if there was a celebration. Neither he nor anyone present pays attention. The group of minors, from different areas of the occupied West Bank and uniformed in the gray tracksuits in which they left the prison, line up on the steps of the Town Hall, all raised on their shoulders, to receive the crowd bath.
“The prison is a living cemetery. All prisoners will soon be released. Since the war in Gaza began, they beat us every day in prison, they humiliated us every day…”, denounces Yamal Barahnah, 17 years old and originally from Jericho, who allows himself to be photographed with the flag of Fatah, the main party. of the ANP whose yellow color is lost among the dominance of the green of the Islamists. Barahnah had been imprisoned for a year and a half under administrative detention, without charge or trial, on charges of activism against the Israeli army.
Veterans of Israeli prisons
Moments before speaking with this special envoy, the young man merged into a tearful hug with his father, Khalil, 51 years old. He and several of his brothers, Yamal’s uncles, are old veterans of Israeli prisons as well, especially for participating in the First Intifada (1987-1993). Some show on their leg the memory of a bullet received at the age that his nephew is today. Khalil does not answer whether he is proud that Yamal, the second of his five children, has followed in his footsteps, but his silence adorned with a smile suggests what he thinks.
Naima Hmidan, 61 years old and with a cane on her lap, waits sitting in the Betunia library, next to the Town Hall, for the group of liberated people to arrive. Her daughter Rawan Zeyadeh, 30, appears on her list, who has been serving a nine-year sentence since 2015 for stabbing a member of the Israel Security Forces, facts that her mother denies. “Until I hug her, I won’t believe she’s out of her mind,” says Hmidan, who hasn’t seen her daughter for four years.
Another of the released women, Sarah Abdallah, from Nablus, was serving an eight-year sentence. “Hamas freed me with the agreement and I am extremely proud and grateful,” she says, raising her voice on the steps of the City Hall. Abdallah asked to send a message to Yahia Sinwar and Mahamed Deif, the masterminds of the October 7 attack: “I am proud of Sinwar and Deif because they are the only ones who were by our side,” she added in front of a group of authorities, among whom There were some representatives of the ANP, which disputes power with Hamas.
One of those present is the minister in charge of prisoners, Qadura Fares, smiling and optimistic. So much so that, among jokes, he sees himself unemployed one of these days. “The day they release everyone, I will be out of a job,” he says without, at the same time, forgetting that there are still some 8,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
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