Israel began releasing Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Oct. 13, as part of its ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The prisoner release comes after Hamas freed all remaining Israeli hostages in keeping with the agreement on Monday afternoon. Under the accords, Israel is to release 250 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,700 detainees.

Videos and broadcast feeds showed Palestinian prisoners on buses exiting a prison in southern Israel. Buses parked outside Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the afternoon had thousands of Palestinians huddled around them, awaiting the release of the former prisoners and detainees inside. Some appeared to pop their heads through the bus windows to talk with the crowds below.

Images also showed families reuniting tearfully in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as crowds of onlookers craned to get a look at those newly released.

Most were detainees taken by Israeli forces during the war in Gaza; however, the group also included 250 prisoners convicted of involvement in deadly attacks or held under suspicion of such security offenses, according to Reuters.

Point number five of President Donald Trump's plan calls for Israel to release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans who were detained after Oct. 7, 2023 − once all Israeli hostages have been released. The plan also notes that "for every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans."

The hostage and prisoner release is tied to the ongoing ceasefire, which began on Oct. 10, and remains the only current agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Once every hostage has been released, Trump's plan would also offer amnesty to Hamas members who agree to give up their weapons. It has also called for the immediate restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks more than two years ago, the Israeli offensive on Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. More than 900 Israeli soldiers have died fighting in the war, according to Israel's Institute for National Security Studies.

The devastating military campaign has flattened large swaths of Gaza, displacing thousands of Gazans and sparking a humanitarian crisis and intensifying international backlash. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded in September that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, citing the scale of the killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to support its determination. Israel vehemently denies the claims. Multiple Western countries in recent months have moved to recognize a Palestinian state, in defiance of the U.S. and Israel's opposition to such a move.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel begins release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, detainees

Reporting by Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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