Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza

As Palestinian inmates released by Israel on Saturday stepped off the buses that took them to the Gaza Strip, some flashed a victory sign and swiftly set fire to sweatshirts they were made to wear in prison.

Images broadcast on Israeli media before their release under a ceasefire deal with Hamas showed rows of Palestinian prisoners wearing sweatshirts emblazoned with the Star of David, the logo of Israel's prison service and the Arabic phrase "we do not forget and we do not forgive".

The white sweatshirts could be seen on the ground wreathed in orange flames at the prisoners' reception point in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, an AFP correspondent said.

The growing blaze sent plumes of black smoke skywards over the crowds greeting the released inmates.

In previous releases under the Gaza deal, Palestinians were let out with plain grey prison tracksuits that did not bear any inscriptions.

The vast majority of prisoners released on Saturday, in exchange for three Israeli hostages, were Gazans taken into Israeli custody during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group.

The Gaza-bound convoy, facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, dropped off jubilant prisoners who threw victory signs and waved at the crowd welcoming them.

Other Palestinians freed Saturday were serving life sentences over attacks against Israelis, with some of them deported upon release.

Hamas, the Palestinian group whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war, and ally Islamic Jihad both condemned the Israeli prison service sweatshirts, calling them "racist".

Ibrahim, 61, a freed prisoner who declined to share his last name, said he was sad to see the extent of the destruction wrought by the war in Gaza.

He said he had left "prison and suffering", but the Gaza Strip -- for years under a crippling Israeli-led blockade -- was "the largest prison in the world".

He said he had been arrested in northern Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, and still did not know why he was jailed for nine months.

Abd Abu Zayra, another freed prisoner, told AFP he had Hamas to thank for his release, a moment "of joy and victory mixed with sadness and tragedy".

"We pray that the war ends and that all prisoners are released," he said.

The buses inched forward through the dense crowd, dropping off prisoners one after the other.

Paramedics taking the freed prisoners to the hospital for check-ups were overwhelmed by the sea of relatives and friends who had gathered to greet them.

Muhammad Zaqout, director of Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry, said medical examinations would be conducted for each prisoner.

He said many have suffered "torture" and neglect in jail.

Tariq Haniyeh, a 22-year-old Gazan, told AFP he had come to Khan Yunis to welcome his relative Loay Haniyeh a year after his arrest at a refugee camp near Gaza City.

"It's a great joy to see the prisoners freed, but I'm very sad because I still have other relatives who are still detained", said Tariq Haniyeh.

He said his family was still in mourning after the deaths of 21 relatives during the war, including distant cousin Ismail Haniyeh, the former Hamas chief killed by Israel in Tehran in July 2024.

Unlike Ismail Haniyeh, Tariq said his relative Loay, had "no connection to any Palestinian faction, and they (Israel) arrested him like thousands of others, without reason".

Those in the last buses, too excited to wait, began their reunion from the bus windows.

One man stood on the shoulders of another to kiss a prisoner from the window. A child was hoisted in the air to be embraced.

Some stood on their toes to try to reach the hand of a loved one, while some prisoners still on the buses grabbed the microphones of journalists to start recounting their journey.