Israel to release 183 Palestinian prisoners

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00:00As you join us behind, we can see vehicles, Israeli military vehicles,

00:05leaving off the prison. This is the beginning of the process where these

00:08Palestinian prisoners will be released. Some 183 prisoners are being released as

00:14part of the deal today. They include 150 who will be going to the Gaza Strip,

00:19some 32 to the West Bank who will see their reception in Ramallah a little

00:24later, and one who is being sent back to Egypt. Among those prisoners there are

00:29three who are renowned, infamous life prisoners. Shadi Amori, a car bomber

00:35from 2002, responsible, as Roz says, for 17 deaths. Ashraf Abu Surur, who was

00:41involved in shooting a soldier near Rachel's tomb in Jerusalem in the year

00:452000. And also Ahmed Aslim, who killed an Israeli couple in the West Bank in 2002.

00:52This is, of course, part of the deal. Three hostages, ordinarily would mean one

00:58civilian, 30 prisoners released. That would make a total of 90. But this time,

01:02for a reason as yet unannounced, 183 prisoners are being released. It's said

01:08to include many who were taken off the streets in the wake of October the 7th,

01:122023, in the wake, of course, of Hamas's attack on southern Israel. Mark, it's

01:18it's difficult to know, but any ideas to the breakdown of those prisoners? Yes, the

01:28the three that I mentioned are, of course, long-serving life sentenced

01:33prisoners, who are infamous in many, many ways. The breakdown

01:40after that is really difficult to ascertain, given the scale of the numbers

01:46183. Israel always publicizes the fact that there are life prisoners involved

01:52in this, who've been involved, they say, in heinous terrorist crimes. But on the

01:56other side of the equation, there are often Palestinians who've been taken, put

02:00away for no specific reasons, as far as they're concerned. We've had cases of

02:04journalists being arrested for being journalists, basically. The youngest

02:07prisoner, of course, who was taken into the Israeli prison

02:13system. We can hear fireworks going off in the distance, in case you're concerned

02:16about any noise you might hear behind me. The youngest prisoner, of course, was just

02:1915 years old. So, I mean, basically there's all manner of prisoners being

02:23taken into the system, and we will find out more as we go along. But the news

02:26here at Offa Prison is that the process for their freedom is underway.

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