Bus with released Palestinians reaches West Bank town

BEITUNIA, Palestinian Territories: A bus carrying Palestinian prisoners arrived at the West Bank town of Beitunia where the inmates disembarked after they were freed from Ofer prison on Saturday, an AFP journalist reported.

The inmates departed from the Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank after three Israeli hostages were handed over by Hamas in Gaza in a fourth such exchange agreed under the ceasefire deal.

An AFP correspondent reported that the bus had reached Beitunia near Ramallah where prisoners disembarked and were greeted by cheering crowds of relatives.

Earlier, ranks of Hamas fighters formed up on Gaza’s beachfront on Saturday for the handover of an Israeli-American hostage in a show of force against the dramatic backdrop of breaking waves.

In Gaza City a stage had been erected at a harbour for the handover of Keith Siegel.

Green Hamas and Palestinian flags flapped in a strong sea breeze near a fisherman’s wharf.

Before it, Israeli Yarden Bibas and Franco-Israeli Ofer Kalderon were handed over in a swift and organised ceremony in the war-battered city of Khan Yunis to the south.

Siegel, 65, wore a black tracksuit and dark-grey hat as he was escorted quickly to the stage by fighters. He waved to onlookers and cameras, before being handed over to the Red Cross.

The occupational therapist seized from his home, along with his wife Aviva who was released during a truce in November 2023, appeared to have some difficulty moving as he mounted the stage.

Before Siegel’s release, ordered lines of scores of heavily armed militants, only their eyes visible through masks, flanked the platform.

On a row of pickups, some fighters carried RPGs (rocket-propelled-grenades) and other weapons.