Mohamed Majed
26 January 2025•Update: 26 January 2025
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Hamas announced Saturday that a senior delegation from the group, led by the chairman of the Shura Council, will head to Cairo for an official visit.
"The senior delegation, led by Mohammed Darwish, will meet with Egyptian officials during the visit," said spokesman Hazem Qassem.
The delegation will also receive exiled prisoners expected to arrive as part of the second phase of the exchange process, Qassem added.
A second batch of 200 Palestinian prisoners was released Saturday under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel.
Televised footage showed the arrival of 114 prisoners in the West Bank city of Ramallah from the Ofer Military Prison aboard three International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) buses.
Sixteen prisoners, accompanied by Red Cross representatives, also arrived at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, to the warm welcome of thousands.
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News channel reported that two buses carrying 70 freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in Egypt under the ceasefire agreement.
The Prisoners’ Media Office said early Saturday that the freed prisoners include 121 who had been serving life sentences and 79 with lengthy sentences.
It added that 70 of those serving life sentences will be sent outside Palestinian territories.
Under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel is now set to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor area that separates northern Gaza from its south, allowing displaced Palestinians to return to the north.
The first six-week phase of the agreement took effect Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.
On day one of the deal, Israel released 90 Palestinian detainees in return for three Israeli captives set free by Hamas.
The three-phase agreement includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of untold numbers of elderly people, women, and children.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala
