\n
Anwar and his cousin, Mourad Atta, 17, are among the 180 Palestinian teenagers and women freed from Israeli prisons in recent days, the largest such release of prisoners and detainees in more than a decade. Their freedom is part of a deal in which the Palestinians were traded for 81 hostages, many of them children, captured during the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7. The deal also included a temporary cease-fire in the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 13,000 people, according to Gazan officials.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s bombardment of Gaza and the elation over the prisoners\u2019 release have deepened support for Hamas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has administered cities and towns for more than two decades. Gaza, the other Palestinian enclave, has by contrast been controlled since 2007 by Hamas, a militant group.<\/p>\n
Now, as many in the West Bank fear the war could spread to the occupied territory, some believe Hamas and other armed groups are the only ones they can trust to protect them.<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Authority \u2014 which is controlled by the Fatah political faction \u2014 is deeply unpopular and widely seen as a subcontractor to the Israeli occupation. Long-simmering frustrations with the authority\u2019s leadership and accusations of corruption have been exacerbated in the past year by an uptick in violence by Israeli settlers.<\/p>\n
For some Palestinians living under military occupation in the West Bank, the freed prisoners have become a potent symbol of Hamas\u2019s ability to achieve tangible results and its willingness to fight for the Palestinian cause. Each night in Ramallah, as new batches of prisoners were released, one refrain echoed across the crowds: \u201cThe people want Hamas! The people want Hamas!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Pollsters and analysts caution that support for the group is limited to a minority of residents and tends to rise temporarily during conflicts in Gaza. But with fears that a wider war could break out in the West Bank, many say the growing support for Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and other countries, has taken on a new dimension.<\/p>\n
There is a growing sense that people need protection and they \u201cdon\u2019t have any alternative,\u201d said Ghassan Khatib, director of the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, which specializes in research and opinion polling. \u201cThe only game in town is Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours after his release, Anwar Atta and his cousin Mourad sat outside their families\u2019 homes in Deir Abu Masha\u2019al, a village of around 4,000 people on the outskirts of Ramallah. A steady stream of neighbors and relatives came to welcome them home, smoking cigarettes and drinking small cups of coffee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere have you been, it\u2019s been a while,\u201d Anwar\u2019s aunt, Halima Atta, chided him as she held him in her arms. \u201cAre you going to keep making trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cI\u2019m done, OK? I\u2019m done,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cNo, you have a beard now \u2014 you\u2019re a man,\u201d Halima joked.<\/p>\n
The reunion was years in the making. Anwar was arrested in June 2021, which he says was for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers \u2014 an act of resistance spurred by an Israeli military offensive in Gaza a month earlier. The Israeli authorities say he threw an \u201cincendiary device.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the more than two years he spent awaiting trial, Anwar had come to accept that most of his early adulthood would be spent behind bars \u2014 a price he was willing to pay to defend his land, he said.<\/p>\n
After the Oct. 7 attack, which Israeli officials say killed an estimated 1,200 people, news of Hamas taking hostages spread between the cells at Ofer Prison \u2014 sparking hope that a prisoner release could follow. Inmates clapped and cheered, crying \u201cGod is great\u201d and praising the armed resistance, Anwar recalled.<\/p>\n
The weeks that followed, he said, were the harshest of his time in prison. Anwar, other recently released prisoners and human rights groups say that prison officials rationed water and electricity. They confiscated TVs and radios, and barred relatives from visiting \u2014 effectively creating an information blackout. And as prison officials stepped up their searches for contraband, they forced inmates to kneel on the floor and beat them, released prisoners and rights groups said.<\/p>\n
The Israeli prison service has said that it has imposed tighter restrictions in prisons in recent weeks \u2014 including confiscating electronics, canceling family visits and carrying out hundreds of searches \u2014 in connection with the war effort. Officials say that prisoners are able to file complaints that would be examined by the authorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Hundreds of new inmates also flooded into the prison \u2014 some of the more than 2,000 Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7 \u2014 and shared news of the war in hushed whispers, Anwar said. The inmates devoured each morsel of new information, both stunned at the sheer devastation in Gaza and wondering if the war could also bring their freedom.<\/p>\n
Then last week, the moment Anwar had been praying for arrived.<\/p>\n
Early Sunday morning, Mourad\u2019s mother was sitting on the sagging couch in their living room, watching the news on TV and agonizing over whether her son would be among those released. When she saw Mourad and Anwar\u2019s faces flash across the screen waving from the bus of prisoners, she leaped from her seat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cWe were screaming and jumping and crying \u2014 we couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d his mother, Amal Atta, 35, said.<\/p>\n
Mourad was arrested after throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in August 2022, prompted by a days-long military offensive in Gaza by Israel earlier that month, he said. Israeli authorities accused him of throwing an explosive device. Like his cousin, he, too, was never tried.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n