'It's a new birth' as tears flow in Palestine reunions

With huge crowds waiting to welcome them home, Palestinian prisoners released by Israel yesterday under a Gaza ceasefire deal were overwhelmed with joy as they returned to their loved ones.

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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, said, 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.