CAIRO, February 21. /TASS/. At least 602 Palestinian prisoners, including 50 serving life sentences, will be released by Israel on February 22 under the Gaza ceasefire deal, the Hamas-linked Prisoners’ Information Office said.

"As part of the deal [with Israel], 50 people sentenced to life, 60 people serving long prison terms, 47 repeat offenders, and 445 Gazans detained after October 7, 2023 will be freed on Saturday," it said on its Telegram channel, saying nothing about whether any of them would be deported outside the Palestinian territories.

Abu Ubaida, a spokesman of Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, posted on his Telegram channel a list of Israeli hostages who are to be released by Hamas on February 22. The list includes the names of six Israeli citizens, including Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian Israeli citizen, and Hisham Al-Sayed, an Israeli Arab, who have been held hostage since 2014 and 2015, respectively.

On February 20, Hamas handed over to the Red Cross the bodies of four hostages, including three members of the Bibas family: Kfir, who was nine months, his brother Ariel who was four when they were abducted, and their mother Shiri. Later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of "a cruel and despicable violation" of the ceasefire deal after a forensic study revealed that the radicals had handed over the body of an unidentified Gazan woman instead of the kids’ mother Shiri.