'From hell to heaven,' says Palestinian prisoner after release from Israeli jail

Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem cheered and wept after 90 prisoners were freed by Israel on the early hours of Monday (January 20), as Hamas released three Israeli hostages on the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.

Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands of people waited to welcome them. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.

"I left hell and now I'm in heaven," said freed Palestinian prisoner Abdelaziz Atawneh upon his release.

In Jerusalem where Israeli police prevented all kinds of celebrations, 18-year-old freed prisoner Rose Khwais, who was arrested after being accused of a stabbing attack last May, said she pined for freedom during her imprisonment.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to medical officials in Gaza. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.

(Production: Yosri Aljamal, Ismael Khader, Ali Sawafta, Roleen Tafakji)