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At Fruit Roundabout on the outskirts of Ramallah, the Bari family was having a painfully long night.
Only two kilometres down the road, Israa Bari was on the brink of being freed from Israel’s Ofer Prison. She would soon be released into the arms of her husband and children, and the collective embrace of thousands of strangers who flocked to the area to welcome Palestine’s latest heroes.
Ms Bari, a writer and teacher from the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin, had been in prison for months without trial, her family said. Her sudden release was the consequence of a deal struck between Israel and Hamas last week to end fighting in Gaza and free hostages taken from Israel on October 7, 2023. Once the deal was signed, families still had to wait for Israel’s government to approve it in a chaotic process.
The family’s patient wait by the side of the road on Sunday, as a cold and foggy night rolled in, was the final trial in this painful process. The nerves were clear on their faces.
Hours earlier, three hostages had crossed into Israel from Gaza after well over a year in captivity. Their last image of the Palestinian enclave was from Red Cross vehicles as thousands of Gazans thronged the area. When they arrived in Israel, a short health check-up preceded a helicopter trip to the Sheba Medical Centre, where they will recover away from the public eye.
The Bari family and many other Palestinian families at Fruit Roundabout had no such privacy, but they did not seem to mind. They took comfort in the fact their relatives were about to receive a massive, patriotic, Palestinian welcome.
Ms Bari's husband, Marwan Bari, dressed in a suit and tie and long formal coat, was on edge but could not wait to see her.
“Israa has written novels, she writes in newspapers. She’s a member of the Ministry of Culture. Everything she’s written has been about peace and freedom, but they still arrested her,” he said.
“The conditions in prison are really, really terrible. I’ve never seen it, so all that I've heard is from those who have left. They say there is little food, no clothing. My wife has asthma but thank God seems to be OK,” he added.
“We’re happy. We’ve prepared the house. There’s so much we didn’t know about her state. We were just trusting God. Our people are used to carrying heavy burdens.”
Mohammed Bari, Ms Bari’s son, was beaming and displayed much less of his father’s nerves. Like many of the family, he saw this moment through the prism of the entire Palestinian cause, not just his family’s story.
“I am so happy and all of us here are in general happy that the war has ended for the people of Gaza. Hopefully the coming days are better than before,” he said.
Khalida Jarrar, 62, the most prominent Palestinian detainee freed on Sunday, described a mix of elation at her freedom and sadness at the huge loss of life during the war. Ms Jarrar is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular leftist faction that was involved in attacks against Israel in the 1970s but later scaled back militant activities. Since her arrest in late 2023, she was held under indefinitely renewable administrative detention, a widely criticised practice that Israel uses against Palestinians.
“There’s this double feeling we’re living in, on the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain of losing so many Palestinian martyrs,” she told the Associated Press.
Rand Safi, who works for an international NGO, did not have any family members being released on Sunday but still arrived at Fruit Roundabout hours early to welcome the released Palestinians, who during this round were mostly women and children.
“All the prisoners are our brothers and sisters. They have been suffering in our name as the Palestinian people,” she said.
“This is the least we can do to come here and show solidarity. The cause of prisoners is a very important element of the Palestinian struggle. We have been struggling and suffering from the Israelis taking our loved ones into prisons,” she added.
“As you can see and witness, people here are thirsty to be united with their families, so it is a very important issue and cause. It is the essence of the Palestinian struggle.”
As the families waited quietly, mostly young men took to the centre of the roundabout and bellowed for hours. “The people want the Al Qassam Brigades!” was a common chant, referring to the military wing of armed group Hamas who rule Gaza and who led the October 7 attacks, making them Israel’s primary enemy in months of fighting in the strip.
Others spoke of destroying Tel Aviv and insulted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose seat of power is just up the road.
The men raised the flags of Palestine and Hamas in equal measure, an astonishing sight so close to the border of the country that has deemed the group an existential threat worthy of total destruction. The flags of Yemen, Hezbollah and militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad could also be seen. Some mimicked the dress of Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida.
As the night wore on, the seething energy spread down the street to where a line of Palestinian ambulances marked the beginning of no-man’s land, the other side of which stood Israeli troops, who fired a number of tear gas canisters towards the crowds. It was through here that two Red Cross buses carrying the freed prisoners would cross.
Anticipation was building and at least half a dozen false starts occurred. People screamed the word “captives”, erupted in cheers and ran back fearing projectiles would be fired by the Israeli military, only to find no one was coming.
When the two buses emerged, shortly after 1am, the West Bank saw one of the most animated and passionate scenes since October 7, 2023. It was an astonishing break from the subdued mood that has pervaded the region through the war, during which Israeli raids and settler violence have massively increased.
Young men climbed on top of the buses, as the freed prisoners inside banged on the windows, many weeping. Red Cross staff could be seen trying to keep everyone calm as the coach drivers kept eyes fixed on the packed road.
At one point it looked like the buses were in a gridlock. Ambulances screamed past, tussles broke out, drones buzzed overhead. All the drivers could do was plough on for the final 50 metres. When they made it to the roundabout, out tumbled the captives into the arms of their families. With so many coming out in one go, everyone was surrounded in a sudden circle of relief, tears and solidarity.
But the flags never stopped flying, nor did the chants of rage. This was a celebration with two sides: one based on the simplest love of tight-knit families, the other the seething energy of a region that has been on the brink of an uprising.
Similar descriptions could be applied to parallel scenes unfolding in Israel on Sunday. Images of the three hostages being embraced by their family led to a moment of intense national relief, but also anguish for many others still in captivity whose fate remains uncertain. There is also deep concern in Israel at the price being paid to secure a relatively small number of people, a large share of whom are already dead. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many on terror charges, are being freed. Many Israeli families would undoubtedly be terrified by images of the flags of Israel's enemies flying just outside Ramallah.
“Today is a celebration for everyone so it wouldn’t make sense if the Hamas flags weren’t here,” Ms Safi said, explaining the complex politics of the moment.
“Everyone who believes in the cause, who believes in freedom of speech, who believes in the right of Palestinians to participate in a political life, should stand up. It doesn’t matter what [Israel does] – Palestinians will always have a loud voice.”
