Islamic Jihad praises resistance and unity for historic release of Palestinian captives

Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziyad al-Nakhalah made the statement on Monday, following Zionist regime’s release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement with the Hamas resistance group.

“What was achieved today, the liberation of a large number of prisoners belonging to the resistance and the Palestinian people, would not have been possible without the men of the resistance, the valor of the fighters in the field, and the unity of the Palestinian people behind their resistance,” he said.

Following indirect negotiations in Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Hamas resistance group agreed to a Gaza truce plan proposed by US President Donald Trump.

Under the first phase of the agreement, which came into effect at noon local time on Friday, Hamas released 20 Israeli captives alive, while arrangements are underway for the transfer of the bodies of 28 others.

In return, Zionist regime is freeing nearly 2,000 Palestinians, who were unlawfully detained by the regime.

Among them are 1,700 detainees who were held by Israel without charge since the regime started its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. Another 250 prisoners were serving life or long sentences.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said 154 of those freed as part of the Gaza ceasefire were forced into exile in Egypt.

Also in his statement, Nakhlah emphasized that liberating the remaining brave Palestinians from Israeli jails is a priority for the resistance.

“The banners of the resistance remained high and unbroken, the resistance remained in the field, and our people remained proud, dignified, and committed to their resistance,” he added.

Embraces and tears as Palestinian families reunite with freed abductees as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

One of the freed Palestinian abductees, whose name was withheld, condemned Zionist regime’s jails as “prisons of injustice,” where most of the Palestinians are tortured more than once a day.

Speaking to the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera from the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, he said many Palestinians were electrocuted and fired at by Israeli troops with rubber-coated bullets.

“We were detained in a slaughterhouse,” he added.

He also said the Palestinians in Gaza remain “brave and steadfast.” The released detainee thanked “God, the Palestinian people, and the resistance fighters in Gaza” for securing his release.

Another Palestinian prisoner, Shadi Abu Seed, gave a harrowing account of life inside an Israeli prison.

“I went hungry for the past two years. I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They kept us naked. They beat us while we were naked day and night. We were tortured,” he said. “We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.”

According to classified Zionist regime’s military data, nearly 75 percent of Palestinians abducted by Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip were civilians, the Guardian reported in early September.

As per the records, as of May, Zionist regime had detained more than 6,000 Palestinians under its “unlawful combatants” law, which allows indefinite detention without charge or trial.