Gaza – prisoners released

As of Sunday evening, 39 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons, Israel’s prison system confirmed. The release is part of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. It was not immediately clear how old the released prisoners are. In the last two days, however, it has mainly been women and teenagers who were allowed to leave prison and return home. A total of 150 Palestinian prisoners are to be released in exchange for a total of 50 Israeli hostages within four days. The announcement of the release of Palestinian prisoners on Sunday night came after 13 Israeli hostages – nine of them children – were released by Hamas earlier on Sunday. So did three Thai citizens and one person with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship. This is the third time that Israel and Hamas have exchanged prisoners for hostages during the agreed four-day ceasefire./ritzau/AFP