News - Middle East: Screams of joy and relief filled a room crammed with people as 23-year-old Malak Suleiman finally returned home in the occupied East al-Quds after spending six years in an Israeli prison.

Suleiman was arrested on trumped-up charges when she was a minor in 2016. Israeli police said they found a knife in her possession. The young girl was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison at the age of 17 on unsubstantiated charges of “attempted murder.”
She was part of the first batch of Palestinian prisoners who were released on Friday under a four-day ceasefire deal between the Israeli regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
However, the mood was heavy as Suleiman and her family knew her freedom came after almost 15,000 Palestinian lives, most of them young children, were brutally cut short.
On October 7, Hamas carried out the multi-pronged Operation Al-Aqsa Strom, striking deep into Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, killing many Israeli soldiers and settlers and taking hundreds of others captive. The occupying regime responded with indiscriminate bombings targeting the densely-populated besieged territory, killing nearly 15,000 Palestinians.
Two-thirds of those killed in Gaza are women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities. 
According to the terms of the temporary truce, 150 Palestinian women and children ought to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for 50 Israeli captives.
Israel released 78 Palestinian prisoners, including the 39 freed on Friday and 39 freed late on Saturday.
In return, Hamas also set free 26 Israelis, 14 Thais and one Filipino captives on Friday and Saturday.
On Sunday, Israel released the third batch of 39 Palestinian prisoners and Hamas handed over 13 Israeli captives, including nine children and four foreign nationals – three Thais and one Russian.