The cheers that greeted returning prisoners in Khan Younès testify to a spirit unbroken. Buses carrying those released after years in captivity rolled into Gaza’s southern enclave, greeted by throngs whose joy was a bold statement: the struggle endures, and victory is within reach.

This release, part of a truce agreement brokered between Hamas and its adversaries, saw 250 individuals serving life sentences freed, alongside 1,718 others detained since October 2023, marking the opening move in a ceasefire meant to halt the genocidal war waged against Gaza over two years. The absence of transparent disclosure over their destinations echoes earlier practices, when some detainees were sent into exile, to nations like Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey, raising serious questions about the infringement of their fundamental rights.

For centuries, this land has known upheaval, but rarely has its people’s resolve been so vivid. The announcement accompanying the prisoner release underlined that the triumphant welcome “demonstrated which side stands victorious.” Indeed, after relentless bombardment and deprivation, the forces of resistance have tightened their connection with the population, seen now not merely as defenders but as custodians of national dignity.

This event, though wrapped in diplomatic language, lays bare the deeper reality: an enduring moral campaign to reverse decades of dispossession. The grand reception was an act of resistance in itself, a public assertion that the people remain at the core, undeterred by years of violence and deprivation.