Such was the delight of the Palestinians in the hours leading up to the prisoners’ freedom. But Israeli forces used tear gas, stun grenades, and possibly rounds of live ammunition to keep the crowds away.
These were the first batch of Palestinian prisoners who had been freed under what is expected to be a short Qatari-brokered temporary truce that also saw Hamas release elderly and young Israeli hostages in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Mainly, women and teenage boys were freed by the occupation, with the boys dramatically raising their hands in the air, displaying a V for victory signs.
This was, after all, a day of celebration for Palestinians from all walks of life and from all political affiliations.
It has been a long time since the Israeli regime has been forced to free Palestinians, especially boys who were arrested for throwing stones at heavily armored Israeli military vehicles in the occupied West Bank.
Abysmal failure to defeat resistance groups
Despite the fact that Gazans sustained unbelievable losses in lives and properties, Palestinians emerged joyous following a respite in the Israeli aggression.
The apartheid regime of Israel almost razed all the civil infrastructure of Gaza to the ground, killing nearly 15,000 and displacing more than a million.
The news of the deal was received with anxiety in Israel, with many Israelis openly criticizing the Israeli government for its abysmal failure in defeating the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza.
“Victory of blood over sword”
Over the course of its aggression against the Palestinian enclave, Israel used everything in its military power to bring Hamas to its knees. To this end, the Israeli military deliberately targeted civil infrastructure such as hospitals and schools to get the Palestinian people to revolt against the resistance group. The outcome, however, was quite the contrary, with Palestinians from all walks of life hailing the resistance groups in Gaza for getting Israel to release Palestinian women and teenagers from its dungeons.
In a sense, the victory of Gaza is a prime example of the “victory of blood over sword”. The most sophisticated weapon that the Gazans had was an improved version of the RPG called Al-Yaseen 105. With this relatively artless projectile, Gazans delivered fatal blows to Israeli troops in the enclave despite the fact that the Israeli military does have a long list of state-of-the-art lethal weapons.
Waving Hamas flags in West Bank enrages Israeli forces
What triggered the strongest response from the Israeli forces was when they saw large green flags of Hamas being waved and what essentially became rallying points for Palestinians to chant in support of the resistance movement all the way on the other side in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Green flags of Hamas near Ramallah, which is supposed to be the stronghold for the West Bank-based Fatah faction, will not sit down well in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his staunchest allies.
The crowds chanted “We are Mohamad Deif’s men”, in reference to the secretive Hamas military commander who has survived multiple Israeli assassination attempts.
Palestinians also chanted “We want the al-Qassam brigades”, in reference to the armed wing of Hamas.
Essentially, Palestinians in the West Bank are celebrating a major coup for themselves, which is getting prisoners out of Israeli jails and not the other way around, which normally shows how events unfold there.
But chants in support of Hamas and the group’s flags being waved in the West Bank city of Ramallah were perhaps unexpected.
This will be seen as a major failure for Israeli political and military leaders.
But it will also be of major concern for the Israeli hierarchy.
Following seven weeks of death and destruction in its war on Gaza, the regime wants Palestinians to reach a decisive conclusion that Hamas cannot bring them peace or security.
What happened on Friday night on the first day of the ceasefire and exchange of prisoners was the complete opposite of what the occupying regime had wanted.
How could it be that support for Hamas has not diminished but increased after everything the regime has committed in the Gaza Strip?
So why are Palestinians chanting in support of Hamas in the West Bank?
It is important to remember that Israeli occupation forces have killed around 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas staged the al-Aqsa Storm Operation on October 7.
The death toll is approximately the same number of Palestinians that Israeli regime forces have killed in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year, which was already the highest since the UN began monitoring the figures.
This is despite the fact that Hamas does not govern the occupied West Bank, nor does the group really operate there.
It is indicative that residents in the occupied West Bank view Hamas as a movement that can achieve progress in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.
Speaking to experts inside the occupied West Bank, they saw Palestinians will, at the end of the day, either are going to die, face prison time or harassment from armed settlers one way or another.
This is not a dignified standard of living.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are losing loved ones on a daily basis.
They are, in essence, fed up with life under a deadly apartheid system.
In Hamas, they see an element of hope.
The prisoners that the Israeli regime released are based in the West Bank and occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), not in the Gaza Strip.
The actions of Hamas on October 7 were a response to the oppression Palestinians are suffering at the hands of Israeli forces and settlers on a daily basis in the occupied West Bank.
Even if the 39 Palestinian prisoners who were freed is nowhere near the roughly 6,000 Palestinian prisoners that are languishing in Israeli jails, it is viewed as a victory for the actions that were executed that led to the Palestinians being freed.
The fact that even one prisoner has been released as a result of an effective retaliatory Palestinian measure is viewed as a victory for the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, the besieged Gaza Strip and the Palestinian diaspora.
For these persecuted people, this is a victory that only the Gaza-based Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movements can undertake to bring the plight of the Palestinian struggle back into the spotlight of global affairs.
The ripple effects of the celebrations in support of Hamas in Ramallah will be felt all the way to Tel Aviv.
As a convoy of Red Crescent ambulances took the freed Palestinian prisoners away for a medical examination and then back to their homes, the crowd planted a large Hamas flag on one of the vehicles.
By Ali Karbalaei
First Published by Tehran Times
