He couldn’t believe that he was free.. The first moments of the release of one of the prisoners from occupation prisons as part of the exchange deal.
Mohammad Nazzal
As part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, both Hamas and Israel are expected to release the hostages/prisoners that they are holding captive.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, which began on Jan. 19 and is to last 42 days, Hamas will release a total of 33 Israeli hostages in return for roughly 1000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons. This prisoner exchange is called Toufan Al-Ahrar in Arabic, which translates to “Flood of the Free,” a similar name to the 2011 Wafa Al-Ahrar, “Faithful to the Free,” prisoner exchange.
The first day of the ceasefire on Jan.19 oversaw the release of 95 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and children, from Israeli captivity.
As of Jan. 31, Hamas has released 13 Israeli hostages and 5 Thai hostages between Jan. 19 and Feb. 1 and Israel has released roughly over 500 Palestinian prisoners. About 111 Palestinians kidnapped from Gaza after Oct. 7, 2023 were released in the third batch on Feb. 1.
Prominent Palestinians were released in the first batch of the prisoner exchange, such as Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as well as the Palestinian Parliament, and Abla Saadat, wife of the secretary general of the PFLP.
Jarrar is a former prisoner, having been arrested a few times before, once in July 2017 in which she was held for two years, another time in 2021, before finally being arrested again in Dec. 2023, two months into the Gaza Genocide.
While in Israeli prison, Jarrar was held in solitary confinement for six months under the most inhumane conditions. She recalled that the Israeli prison guards would attack the prisoners with tear gas as well as offering insufficient amounts of food.
Abla Saadat was arrested in Sept. 2024 and was sentenced to six months administrative detention, which she never finished due to the prisoner exchange.
Administrative detention is a sentence given to many Palestinian prisoners, in which they are held without charge or trial on the pretense that they might commit a crime in the future. Oftentimes, administrative detention sentences can be renewed indefinitely.
The second batch of prisoners who were released on Jan. 25, included many prisoners with lengthy sentences as well as life sentences.
As I was scrolling through Instagram watching the prisoners being released in my hometown of Beitunia in the West Bank, I stumbled upon a video of a newly freed man telling the story of his arrest. This man, named Mohammad Zayed, from the village of Beit Nuba, stated that he was arrested in 2004 as a newlywed of only four months.
At the time of his arrest, his wife was two months pregnant with their son, and now after over twenty years, he was finally able to reunite with his wife and meet his 19-year-old son for the first time.
Zayed shared that he would often tell his fellow inmates in jail that the first cup of coffee he’s going to drink as a free man will only be with his wife, Umm Abdullah. Praise be to God, thanks to the prisoner exchange, Zayed’s wish came true.
He stated, “I promised myself, and told my brothers in jail, that the first cup of coffee I’m going to drink, God willing, will only be from Umm Abdullah’s hands. Praise be to God, by His will, I was able to drink coffee from Umm Abdullah’s hands, under the sun and in front of the house.”
He later on went to say, “The most beautiful thing is being able to drink coffee with the one you love… I want to stay awake, to make sure that this isn’t a dream and in fact reality. I keep asking Umm Abdullah, my family, all of them, ‘is this real? I really came home and am in your presence?’ From the moment of my release until now, I feel that if I sleep I’m going to lose precious moments that I’ve been waiting nearly twenty years for.”
I’ve seen several videos of Zayed and his wife sharing their coffee together on my Instagram timeline, and I never get bored because of how beautiful they are together. It also seems to be that many users online feel the same way, commenting on this pure and beautiful love story. One user wrote, “Romeo and Juliet who???!! This is the love story I want to read about.”
Another user wrote, “I’ve watched this a thousand times because of how sweet it is.”
I pray that this Flood causes the release of all Palestinian prisoners and empties out the Occupation’s prisons once and for all. I congratulate all of those released on their freedom.
Free our prisoners. Free Palestine.