Freed Palestinian inmates set prison garb ablaze on return to Gaza

As Palestinian inmates released by Israel on Saturday stepped off the buses that took them to the Gaza Strip, some flashed a victory sign and swiftly set fire to sweatshirts they were made to wear in prison.

Images broadcast on Israeli media before their release under a ceasefire deal with Hamas showed rows of Palestinian prisoners wearing the sweatshirts emblazoned with the Star of David, the logo of Israel’s prison service and the Arabic phrase “we do not forget and we do not forgive.”

The white sweatshirts could be seen on the ground wreathed in orange flames at the prisoners’ reception point in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

The growing blaze sent plumes of black smoke skywards over the crowds greeting the released inmates.

In previous releases under the Gaza deal, Palestinians were let out with plain grey prison tracksuits that did not bear any inscriptions.

The vast majority of prisoners released on Saturday, in exchange for three Israeli hostages, were Gazans taken into Israeli custody during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.

The Gaza-bound convoy, facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, dropped off jubilant prisoners who threw victory signs and waved at the crowd welcoming them.

Other Palestinians freed Saturday were serving life sentences over attacks against Israelis, with some of them deported upon release.