The family of a pair of Palestinian brothers imprisoned for more than 30 years by Israel are celebrating after receiving word they are slated to be released under the Gaza ceasefire deal sealed by Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli government on Friday issued a list of around 250 Palestinian prisoners due to be freed in exchange for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Israel will also release around 1,700 Palestinians seized from Gaza during the 2-year-old war. After the ceasefire came into effect on Friday, the releases are expected by Monday.

The two brothers, Mohammed and Abdel Jawad Shamasneh, were arrested in 1993 and convicted on charges of participating in an attack that killed three Israelis in Jerusalem.

At the family home in the West Bank town of Qatanna, 83-year-old Yousef Shamasneh said the brothers had been excluded from previous prisoner releases.

“But thanks to God, today He has willed their release, and we are truly happy and grateful for that," he said.

When he was arrested, the youngest of the 56-year-old Mohammed’s three daughters was only two months old. Today, he has 10 grandchildren. Father to seven children, Abdel Jawad, 62, has grandchildren he has never seen.

“Whenever their children have a joyful occasion or a happy event, the happiness always feels incomplete because their fathers are not with us,” said their brother, 52-year-old Amjad Shamasneh.

Still, he was being cautious, saying they had gotten word in the past that they were to be released.

“The joy is immense and overwhelming, but at the same time, we cannot fully trust the credibility of what’s happening until it is absolutely certain,” he said.

The releases are a deeply emotional issue for both sides.

Israelis see the Palestinian prisoners as terrorists, some of them involved in suicide bombings.

Many Palestinians view the thousands held by Israel as political prisoners or freedom fighters resisting decades of military occupation.

Amjad Shamasneh said the joy over the releases is tempered by the death and destruction in Gaza from the past two years of war.

“We truly hope that peace will be achieved, that the war on Gaza will stop, and that everyone can live in calm,” he said.