The al Qassam Brigades hands over 3 Israeli prisoners, including a soldier

The al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, handed over three Israeli prisoners, including one wearing a military uniform, to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the city of Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.

This came within the fifth batch of the exchange deal within the framework of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement that entered into force on January 19.

Unlike previous exchange deals, the ceremony of handing over the Israeli prisoners began after a statement was read by one of the Qassam Brigades members, in which he said that “the ceremony of releasing 3 Israeli prisoners held by them in October 7, 2023”.

For the first time, al Qassam Brigades describes the Israeli prisoners it holds as “detainees”.

The three prisoners appeared in different positions, as two of them, who were elderly, wore a brown color uniform with a picture of the prisoner on his shirt, with the words prisoner of the al Qassam Brigades written below it in Hebrew, while the third came out wearing an Israeli military uniform.

The handover process was preceded by the signing by the International Committee of the Red Cross staff of a prisoner handover document prepared by the al Qassam Brigades.

The Red Cross left the handover site in Deir al Balah after receiving the three Israeli prisoners from al Qassam Brigades.

The handover took place in the presence of hundreds of Palestinians and amidst a heavy deployment of al Qassam Brigades members at the prisoner handover site, carrying various weapons.

At the handover site, the al Qassam Brigades raised a large banner on the main platform, on which was written in Arabic, Hebrew and English the phrase “We’re the flood… We’re the next day”.