With tears of joy rolling down her cheeks, and a look of utter disbelief, Sawsan Bakeer ran down a flight of steps to greet her 24-year-old daughter, Marah, who had just been released after eight years in an Israeli prison, Al Jazeera reports.

Marah Bakeer is one of 39 Palestinian women and children released from Israeli prisons on Friday in exchange for 13 Hamas captives under a Qatar-mediated deal that includes a four-day truce in Gaza.

“I told you Marah is beautiful,” Sawsan told journalists, as she hugged her daughter and showered her with endless kisses. “Not because she’s my daughter, really, but Marah is beautiful, and you got to see for yourself.”

Before her imprisonment, Bakeer was a 16-year-old high school student at al-Maimouna School in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

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