More Palestinian prisoners freed as Israel-Hamas truce holds into third day

A third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners has been freed as the exchange of captives between Hamas and Israel continues for a third day under a four-day truce deal.

Large crowds of Palestinians took to the streets in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday night as they waited for Red Cross buses carrying the prisoners.

Some waved Palestinian flags alongside the flags of the two main Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah. Some youth climbed on top of a white bus transporting mostly young men and some female prisoners.

“At first we did not believe it,” Shakir Mahajna told Al Jazeera while he waited with his family for his son Omar, who recently turned 18.

“The last time I visited him he was frustrated, he told me ‘Dad I want to leave’,” said Mahajna, whose son was 16 when he was arrested and had four months left in his sentence.

“After what happened in October, I was even more scared,” Nour Ara’ar, whose 17-year-old brother Zeid was arrested in July, told Al Jazeera.