Palestinians celebrate release of 90 prisoners held by Israel in first phase of ceasefire deal

It would be the best present we could have for the deal to be agreed and they return home.”

Ahead of the deal, his cousin Eylon Keshet, 31, said

We miss them so much. And I am terrified, even of the best case scenario, because if they all come home alive they will come back as very broken people as we know of the hideous conditions that they're kept in.”

Eylon, of Tel Aviv, said

They’re coming in.”

Ofri’s last ever communication with her brother was a heart-stopping text she got from him at 9:43am that day which read

The list of prisoners, the hundreds of names that have been released, are mostly serving administrative detention, which is a tactic used by Israel to keep people in prison indefinitely without charges,

Ibrahim said

The release of Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, does not mean that the conditions of captivity have changed. Israeli negotiators insisted that nothing will change inside Israeli prisons,

Basil Farraj, an assistant professor at Birzeit University, told Al Jazeera

This shows that this carceral regime is intended to break Palestinian prisoners. It intentionally tries to break their spirit and soul.”

Farraj added

If they do something very little to challenge the status quo, they are faced with jail time,

according to Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim

There’s no food, no sweets, no salt,

he said

Khalida Jarrarpolitician

There’s this double feeling we’re living in, on the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain, of losing so many Palestinian martyrs,

released detainee and political leader Khalida Jarrar told the news agency

Yitshak Kreissisraeli physician

Over the next few days, they will undergo a battery of medical tests in order to prepare proper treatments after enduring such a torturous experience at the hands of Hamas terrorists,

said Yitshak Kreiss, the director-general of Israel’s Sheba Medical Center

Thank God, I am here with my family, I’m satisfied,

she said

Joe Bidenpresident

[T ... T]oday the guns in Gaza are silent" and this deal was "one of the toughest negotiations I have been a part of."

President Joe Biden spoke late on Sunday morning, praising the deal

This is a moment of tremendous hope...Fragile, yet vital."

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has said

What have we achieved? I have four houses and they are all flattened,

said another resident Mohammed Abu Bilal, who returned to Rafah

This ceasefire was a joy mixed with pain,

he said

Addressing the massive needs and restoring the health system will be an extremely complex and challenging task,

the UN health agency said in a press release,

I left hell and now I’m in heaven, we are out of hell,

freed inmate Abdelaziz Atawneh Atawneh told Reuters

Tom FletcheruN relief chief

At least 630 trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Sunday, with at least 300 of them going to the north. There is no time to lose,

Tom Fletcher said in a statement Sunday

Thank you, thank you,

one woman cried as she was embraced by another

Freedom, freedom, we used to see the sky through small squares. I used to say I hope I will see the sky without these squares,

18-year-old freed prisoner Rose Khwais told Reuters