In a sports hall on the outskirts of Ramallah, three skinny men in grey prison sweatsuits and plastic sandals embraced their beaming friends before being lifted on to their shoulders and carried out into the waiting crowds.
Outside the friends and families of those released gathered in anticipation, some waving flags from Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a smaller leftwing faction, others handing out baklava. One man with a shaved head, wispy beard and sunken eyes was carried on the shoulders of the crowd chanting “long live the resistance”.
