Israel began releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday (January 30, 2025) after eight hostages in the Gaza Strip were freed by militants earlier in the day in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly called the exchange into question and underscored the fragility of a ceasefire that began this month.

The prisoners released include 30 serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis. Some are allowed to return to the occupied West Bank, while those convicted of more serious crimes are being transferred to Egypt before further deportation.

Their releases began late Thursday (January 30, 2025) after militants in Gaza freed three Israelis and five Thai nationals, who were working on farms in southern Israel when taken hostage more than 15 months ago.

The releases are part of a ceasefire aimed at ending the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas, and securing the release of dozens more hostages abducted in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that ignited the war.

Scuffles erupted as the convoy of buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners departed from their Israeli prison in the West Bank. Palestinian teenagers threw stones outside the complex and Israeli forces fired tear gas as they tried to clear the area.

Three Palestinians were wounded in the confrontations outside the prison, according to Palestinian Red Crescent, which said Israeli forces had used gunfire and stun grenades to disperse crowds.

The families of Palestinian prisoners caught their first glimpses of the Red Cross buses carrying their loved ones through the bus windshields, some shattered in the melee of stone-throwing and tear gas-firing.

The uproar came hours after a chaotic hostage handover in the Gaza Strip, where masked militants shuttled some captives through a crowd of thousands of Palestinians.

Hamas released seven of the hostages in front of the destroyed home of its slain leader, Yahya Sinwar, as thousands pressed in. The militant group called it a “message of determination,” but it triggered the latest in a series of disputes that have sent U.S. and Arab mediators scrambling to patch up the truce.