Transcript of Israel releases 200 Palestinian prisoners as part of ceasefire deal | BBC News

Part of the agreement, 200 Palestinian prisoners have been released from Israeli jails. Just seeing from Egypt, state-linked media there saying 70 of those free Palestinian prisoners have arrived in Egypt. A large number of the others are going to the West Bank, and our correspondent, John Donison, is in Ramallah. Just describe the scenes to us, John.

Well, you can see the three prison busses behind me. About 20 minutes ago, those busses arrived, and frankly, pretty chaotic scenes as the prisoners got off. A very large crowd, and we saw the prisoners in their gray prison fatigues, many of them with shaved heads, long beards, a lot of them looking pretty thin, it has to be said, hoisted onto the shoulders, carried into the sports complex behind me. You can just see one now emerging there. Man in his forties, I'd say, maybe his fifties, being carried out with a shaven head. When they arrived, the scramble to get to their loved ones. I just saw one prisoner coming out on the shoulders, and what looked to be his young son was hoisted up and put into his arms. Now, the big difference in this prisoner exchange this week compared to last week is the people released today, many of them had been convicted of much more serious offenses, including murder, killing Israeli civilians. Now, those convicted of the most serious offenses, and I think there were 121 of the 200 serving life sentences, they're going to be taken to Egypt, as you say, they're there already, and they're going to be detorted to countries including Qatar and Turkey.

So the people here, and I think there's about 100 or so who've been brought here today, they will be allowed to return to their families, their homes in the West Bank. Many of them have been in prison for years, and it's really a big moment for Palestinians here. The prisoner issue is a massive one. Most families in the West Bank will have had a family member or a friend who's been in Israeli prison at some point. These images today, it has to be said, Hamas will make hay from them because they'll say, Look, we are the force that is getting our prisoners out.

Just describe to our audience around the world, A, how many Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails, and B, how many do we expect to be released as part of this hostage release deal?

Well, there are thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails from a whole range of offenses. As I say, every family probably has a member who at some point has been in an Israeli prison. In the past 15 months, there have been, and you can just see another prisoner coming out here with the Khafia. It's quite feel to experience there. He's just coming past, being carried on down through the crowd with the Palestinian Khafia scarf on, the scarf that Yasser Arafat, the former Palestinian leader, was very well known for. Going back to that question, thousands of Palestinians have been arrested just in the past 15 months across the West Bank and also detained from Gaza. In this first phase of the deal, the first six-week phase, we are expecting another 1,600 Palestinian prisoners to be brought out. Some more are now just emerging. 1,600 more to come in the next six weeks, including the most high-profile prisoners, those convicted of the most serious offenses.

John, we mentioned that this is the first phase of the three phases of this ceasefire and prisoner swap deal. What is the mood in the West Bank about hopes for all three stages passing off and us getting to the end of the process?

Well, a few things. First of all, there's huge relief that there is some ceasefire, albeit perhaps temporary in Gaza. There is celebration and relief that these prisoners are coming out today. But overall, I would say there is absolutely zero sense of optimism that this decades-long conflict is anywhere near to coming to an end. Palestinians here in the West Bank feel like they're being squeezed like never before. They've seen a rise in attacks by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. They've seen a rise in Israeli operations targeting militants in the West Bank. Just this week in Janine, right in the north of the West Bank, we saw a large Israeli military operation which killed, I think, at least 13 Palestinians. The past 15 months in the West Bank, although overshadowed by events in Gaza, has been the most deadly, the most violent in decades. There is absolutely no real prospect of peace here. We sometimes hear international political leaders saying, the next stage is rebuilding Gaza and a two-state solution, a Palestinian state living side by side with an Israeli state. But the truth is, there's no optimism that that's coming anytime soon.