"Our heroic prisoners," "their long resistance," "their sacrifice": As expected, Hamas sought to capitalize on Monday, October 13, on the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza, the partial withdrawal of the Israeli army from the enclave and the return to Israel of the 20 surviving hostages captured on October 7, 2023.

Two years after launching the war against Israel, which triggered a devastating response and led to the deaths of over 67,000 Palestinians, more than 160,000 wounded and the near-total destruction of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is presenting the first stage of the peace plan imposed by US President Donald Trump as a success.

"The enemy failed to recover its prisoners through military pressure despite its intelligence superiority and the power at its disposal. It has now surrendered and recovered its prisoners through a swap agreement, as the resistance promised from the outset," announced the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, echoing the organization's usual propagandist language.

Some 250 inmates serving long sentences − most of whom had been sentenced to life for deadly attacks against Israelis − began to be released on Monday, just hours after the return to Israel of the 20 surviving hostages and before the handover of the bodies of the 28 hostages who did not survive.

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