RAMALLAH - Palestinian prisoners released by Israel on Monday, 13, were reunited with their families, amid a crowd that welcomed them both in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip after the start of a new truce in the conflict.

The prisoners were greeted by such a large crowd that they struggled to get off the bus that brought them from Israeli prisons to the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“It’s an indescribable feeling, like being reborn,” said one of those released, Mahdi Ramadan, surrounded by his parents, with whom he said he would spend his first night outside prison.

Just steps away, family members hugged, young people cried, and pressed their foreheads together. Some even fainted with emotion upon seeing their loved ones again after years—and in some cases, decades—of incarceration.

The crowd also chanted, in celebration, “Allahu akbar,” or “God is greatest” in Arabic.

Several buses carrying detainees also arrived in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis amid shouts of joy, an AFP journalist reported.

The procession advanced slowly, surrounded by a compact and euphoric crowd.

As they got off the buses, some of the newly freed prisoners staggered, others looked around radiantly or knelt to kiss the ground, weeping. Then, on foot, in wheelchairs, or assisted by Red Cross members, they made their way to the courtyard of the Nasser hospital complex.

In a vacant, sandy lot surrounded by warehouses, hundreds of people had been waiting since morning for their families to return. There, they were greeted with Palestinian flags, but also with the green flags of Hamas and the black flags of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.

Among the Palestinians released under the US-brokered truce agreement are 250 security detainees, including those convicted of killing Israelis, as well as some 1,700 Palestinians held by the Israeli army in Gaza.

Israel agreed to release them in exchange for the handover of the hostages still alive in the Gaza Strip, as part of the first phase of the plan to end the war.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas' October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

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In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry announced on Monday a death toll of 67,869 in the offensive launched by Israel in the territory in response to the October 2023 attack.

For 27-year-old Nur Sufan, release means seeing her father, Musa, for the first time, who was arrested months after her birth.

Sufan arrived in Ramallah with other family members from the northern city of Nablus, and spent the night in their car waiting for the prisoners to be released."I've never seen my father... It's a very beautiful moment," Sufan said.

Like him, many came from all over the West Bank, despite travel restrictions within the territory.

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AFP spoke to several inmates who described the same plans for their first hours out of prison: to go home and be with their families.

“Prisoners live on hope (...) Returning home, to our land, is worth all the gold in the world,” said one of the released prisoners, Samer al Halabiyeh.

"God willing, peace will prevail and the war in Gaza will end," he added."Now, I just want to live my life." / AFP