They were freed in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but instead of going home, 154 Palestinian ex-prisoners were exiled to Egypt, where they are confined to a hotel and kept under tight surveillance.

All of them had been sentenced by Israeli military court to life in prison on charges of murder, belonging to Palestinian militant groups banned by Israel, and other acts of violence.

But when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza earlier this month, the group was put on buses and sent to Egypt, where authorities have put them in a five-star hotel that they cannot leave without clearance.

"We were separated from our families for 20 years," Murad Abu al-Rub, a 45-year-old who spent two decades behind bars for murder and for belonging to a Palestinian organisation banned by Israel, told

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