They arrived to an adoring crowd, International Committee of the Red Cross buses full of freed Palestinians.

And as soon as they set foot in Ramallah, the West Bank's largest city, they received a hero's welcome surrounded by the flags of Hamas, tearful family reunifications between a mother and a teenage son she hasn't seen in four months and the family of 27-year-old Walaa Tanjii in the Tulkarm refugee camp outside Nablus.

Inside, her extended family welcomed her back.

She told us today her homecoming felt bittersweet.

WALAA KHALED TANJII, Released Palestinian Prisoner (through translator): It's a mixed feeling between happiness and sadness because of all of the people who have been killed in Gaza.

We lost a lot of women, children and innocent people in Gaza.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Years ago, the documentary "What Walaa Wants" chronicled her dreams to join the Palestinian Authority's police force.

These days, her dream is instilled by her mother: Finish her education.

WALAA KHALED TANJII (through translator): I have a lot of things I want to do.

I have a lot of dreams, ambitions.

And I want to achieve my mom's dream.

My mom's dream was to go to college and study political science.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, right now, those are dreams deferred.

In August 2022, she was arrested outside an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.

Israel accuses you of trying to shoot Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint.

Did you?

WALAA KHALED TANJII (through translator): I deny this.

They stopped me while I was with my friends trying to visit one of our friends to congratulate her on her wedding.

They brought us to the jail and accused us of trying to kill some Israeli soldiers.

NICK SCHIFRIN: She ended up here, Ofer Prison.

And she says after the October 7 terrorist attacks, conditions inside got much worse.

WALAA KHALED TANJII (through translator): They treat us in a very bad way.

They threaten us that they would rape us.

They prevent us from having food and water.

After the 7th of October, we lost everything.

We lost our rights.

We lost our privacy.

They hit us, kicked us every day for 49 days.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel denies mistreating prisoners.

It wasn't the first time Tanjii or her family members were arrested.

She was detained in September 2017 for scuffling with prison guards to protect her brother, who himself has been arrested.

Her mother served eight years in Israeli prison for helping a failed suicide bomber.

Tanjii does not deny or denounce her mother's actions.

Was she guilty of that crime?

WALAA KHALED TANJII (through translator): I do not find my mom guilty because she resists any occupier who stole our lands.

And we have the right to defend ourselves and to resist the occupier and get our lands back.

And we deserve to be free.

NICK SCHIFRIN: She even praises the Hamas October 7 terrorist attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

WALAA KHALED TANJII (through translator): At that moment, I expected our lands will be reclaimed back.

And, God willing, it will return, because it's our land, our right.

NOUR ODEH, Political Analyst: For Palestinians, prisoners is an issue that affects almost every family.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Nour Odeh is a political analyst in Ramallah.

NOUR ODEH: They're seen as heroes because they have been able to withstand the process and the experience of being in prison, in Israeli prison.

These experiences are very harsh.

They're very lonely.

There are no rights.

There is no contact with the families most of the time.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Israel currently holds more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners; 2,000 of them are held in administrative detention without charges.

And of the 300 Palestinians whom Israel identifies as possible releases, one-third are under 18.

NOUR ODEH: Most of the kids and the women who would have been released or will be released have not been charged and have not been tried.

All of them would have gone through the Israeli military court system.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Since October the 7th, Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the West Bank have increased.

And Palestinian human rights groups say Israel has arrested some 3,000 additional Palestinians.

NOUR ODEH: Amassing more Palestinian prisoners is also viewed as Israel's way of having more bargaining chips in these negotiations.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And now that the truce has been extended, those negotiations can continue.

Each day, Hamas is committed to release 10 more hostages, and Israel to release 30 more Palestinian prisoners.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.