Two buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released by Israel reached Ramallah in the occupied West Bank last night, their arrival cheered by hundreds of waiting Palestinians, an AFP correspondent reports.

Israel’s Prison Service confirmed it had freed 110 prisoners yesterday as part of the agreement with Hamas for a truce in Gaza, which came into effect on January 19.

As the buses were delayed, the crowd grew impatient and excited, chanting “Allahu Akbar”. Chants of “the people want the Al-Qassam Brigades” could also be heard as onlookers whistled and waved flags of Fatah and other Palestinian factions.

Among the 110 released prisoners, 66 were freed in the occupied West Bank, nine were released in the Gaza Strip and 14 went to their homes in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, according to Amin Shuman, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Committee.

Shuman told AFP that the remaining 21 prisoners were to be exiled out of Israel and the Palestinian territories.