UPDATE – Israel releases 80 Palestinian detainees from Gaza

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Ramzy Mahmoud and Ahmed Asmar

GAZA CITY, Palestine / ANKARA (AA) – The Israeli army released some 80 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, local sources said.

The detainees were set free at the Israeli-controlled Kissufim crossing in eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the sources added.

A medical source said that at least 10 of the freed prisoners were in poor health condition and hospitalized at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

“One of the freed detainees is in a very critical condition and unable to move, with his body bearing clear signs of torture,” he told Anadolu.

There was no immediate comment from Israel or the Palestinian group Hamas on the releases.

Hundreds of Gazan detainees were previously released from Israeli detention under a January ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas.

There are no exact figures about the number of Gazans held by Israel, but estimates suggest that their numbers are in the thousands.

The Israeli army renewed a deadly assault on Gaza on March 18 and has since killed nearly 1,500 victims, injured 3,700 others, and shattered the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed last week to escalate attacks on Gaza as efforts are underway to implement US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from the enclave.

More than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.