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With huge crowds waiting to welcome them home, Palestinian prisoners released by Israel on Monday under a Gaza ceasefire deal were overwhelmed with joy as they returned to their loved ones.Some threw peace signs while others struggled to walk without assistance as they got off the bus and were met by a crowd cheering their return from Israel's jails to the West Bank city of Ramallah."It's an indescribable feeling, a new birth," Mahdi Ramadan, newly released, told AFP, flanked by his parents with whom he said he would spend his first evening out of jail.Nearby, relatives exchanged hugs, young men in tears pressed their foreheads against each other -- some even fainting from the emotion of seeing loved ones again after years, and sometimes decades, in jail.The crowd chanted in celebration "Allahu akbar", meaning God is the greatest.Among the Palestinians to be released under a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal, 250 are security detainees, including many convicted of killing Israelis, as well as about 1,700 Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in Gaza during the war.Israel agreed to free them in exchange for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, under the first phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war that was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Nour Soufan, now 27 years old, was due to meet his father Moussa, who was jailed a few months after his birth, outside of jail for the first time.Soufan and half a dozen relatives came to Ramallah from Nablus, in the north of the West Bank, and spent the night in their vehicle."I have never seen my father, and this is the first time I will see him. This is a very beautiful moment," Soufan said.Like him, many had defied the travel restrictions that puncture daily life in the Palestinian territory, with Israeli army checkpoints proliferating in two years of war.Palestinian media reported on Sunday that families of detainees had been contacted by Israeli authorities, asking them not to organise mass celebrations."No reception is allowed, no celebration is allowed, no gatherings," said Alaa Bani Odeh, who came from the northern town of Tammun to find his 20-year-old son who had been jailed for four years.AFP spoke to several prisoners who said that in their first hours of freedom, they would go home and stay with family.During previous releases, mass gatherings had flooded entire streets in Ramallah, with people waving Palestinian flags as well as those of political factions including Hamas.Dressed in the grey tracksuits of Israeli prisons, many prisoners also wore a black-and-white kuffiyeh around their necks -- the traditional scarf that has become synonymous with the Palestinian cause.Some of the newly released prisoners happily let themselves be carried away on relatives' shoulders."Prisoners live on hope... Coming home, to our land, is worth all the gold in the world," said one freed detainee, Samer al-Halabiyeh."God willing, peace will prevail, and the war on Gaza will stop," Halabiyeh added."Now I just want to live my life."Journalists rushed to talk to the prisoners, but many declined to engage, sometimes explaining that before their release, they were advised not to speak.In the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis, a crowd gathered near Nasser Hospital, in the hope of catching sight of the prisoners taken during the war with Israel.In the afternoon, thousands cheered to welcome their loved ones as they caught glimpse of the buses carrying them home.

Buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday through the Karam Abu Salem crossing, marking a significant moment in the first phase of the newly brokered ceasefire agreement.The release comes as part of a deal mediated by regional and international actors, aimed at de-escalating the ongoing conflict and laying the groundwork for broader peace talks. Families gathered at the crossing to welcome their loved ones, many of whom had spent years in Israeli detention.More details are expected as the ceasefire unfolds over the coming days, with additional exchanges and coordinated steps anticipated.

Palestinian prisoners' institutions said that the total number of prisoners and detainees in the Israeli occupation's prisons as of the beginning of October 2025 amounted to more than 11,000. The prisoners' institutions said in a joint statement that this number does not include detainees held in the Israeli occupation's military camps, noting that this number is the highest since Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, according to relevant institutions. According to the Israeli occupation's prison administration, the number of prisoners serving sentences as of October exceeded 1,460, while the number of prisoners serving life sentences and those facing indictments pending life sentences reached approximately 350. The number of administrative detainees reached 3,544, the highest percentage compared to the number of detained and convicted prisoners, while the number of detainees classified as "illegal combatants" reached 2,673. This number does not include all Gaza detainees held in Israeli military camps and classified as such. The number of prisoners before the genocide in the Gaza Strip amounted to more than 5,250, including approximately 40 female prisoners and 180 children, while the number of administrative detainees amounted to approximately 1,320, the statement added. Palestinian prisoners' institutions stressed that these numbers reflect the escalation of the occupation's policies and systematic violations, both inside prisons and during arrests, calling for immediate international action to protect prisoners and hold those responsible for these crimes accountable.