Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees as part of the ongoing, US-brokered hostage exchange deal, an IDF spokesperson confirmed on Monday.
According to the spokesperson, all Palestinian prisoners scheduled for release under the agreement have now been freed from Israeli prisons.
The group includes 250 terror convicts serving one or more life sentences, along with 1,718 Gazan detainees arrested during the war.
While Israeli officials had initially pledged to delay the releases until all hostages were safely returned, the government opted to proceed ahead of schedule, freeing the prisoners before Hamas transfers the bodies of 28 hostages believed to have died in captivity.
Footage shared by Palestinian media showed buses carrying freed detainees arriving in Ramallah, where Palestinian Authority security forces cleared crowds to make way for the convoys.
Israeli officials said some of the released prisoners will be deported abroad or returned to Gaza, depending on their place of origin.
Palestinian sources added that 88 detainees were released to the West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of the latest phase of the deal.
The releases mark one of the largest prisoner exchanges in Israel’s history, though both sides have acknowledged that the hostage swap process remains incomplete, with negotiations continuing under US mediation.
