39 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli Ofer prison

Buses carrying about 39 Palestinian prisoners departed on Friday night from the Israeli Ofer prison, which is located near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Xinhua correspondent on-site confirmed.

The 39 Palestinians, including 24 women and 15 minors, were released as part of a Qatar-mediated truce deal between Israel and Hamas, local media reported, referring to the first temporary humanitarian truce between the two warring parties in the Gaza Strip, which entered into force at 7:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Friday.

Under the four-day ceasefire deal, Hamas would release at least 50 hostages from Gaza in exchange for some 150 Palestinian detainees freed from Israeli jails.

Also on Friday, the first group of 13 Israeli hostages, all children and women, were sent to Egypt from Gaza.

Israeli media reported that army helicopters took off from the Hatzeri base to receive them from the Egyptian side.

After initial reception procedures, the hostages were transferred to hospitals to reunite with their family members.

In addition, 10 Thai and one Filipino citizens were also released by Hamas on Friday, the Qatari Foreign Ministry announced on the social media platform X hours earlier.

Israeli troops have been conducting airstrikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, in retaliation for a surprise attack staged by Hamas.

Israel said the Hamas assault killed about 1,200 people while more than 200 hostages were taken to Gaza. At the same time, the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli strikes in Gaza has exceeded 14,000 so far, according to the Hamas-run media office in Gaza.