What struck those who knew Khalida Jarrar when she exited the bus with 77 other Palestinians released from Israeli jails was the whiteness of her hair and her broken voice.

Jarrar, an activist of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said she lost her voice from six months in solitary confinement, and accused Israeli jails of "bad treatment", which the Israeli Prison Service denies.

She was released on Sunday in a first batch of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for hostages held in Gaza under a ceasefire deal between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel.

The ceasefire, which began on Sunday, came after more than 15 months of devastating war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.

The PFLP, which she represents in the Palestinian parliament that hasn't convened since 2018, is a leftist movement blacklisted as a "terrorist organisation" by the European Union and the United States.

On her arrival in Ramallah, relatives were shocked to find her pale-faced........

© Al Monitor