Ramallah, West Bank - A bus carrying a group of Palestinian prisoners released Saturday by Israel under the Gaza ceasefire deal arrived to a cheering crowd in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to an AFP journalist.

Wearing traditional keffiyeh scarves, the freed prisoners were hoisted onto the crowd's shoulders. They hugged relatives before heading to a quick health checkup, the journalist reported.

Many in the crowd waved yellow flags of the Fatah movement which dominates the Palestinian Authority, while one prisoner kissed a baby as soon as he stepped off the bus.

The Israeli Prison Service confirmed it had freed 369 prisoners from the Ofer and Kziot prisons near Ramallah and Gaza respectively, after transferring them "from several prisons across the country."

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Among those released in Ramallah Saturday was Amir Abu Radaha, who had spent more than 30 years in jail.

"I've returned to my family and I've returned anew, born again. Today is a new birthday," he told AFP from their home in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.

Abu Radaha said that during the time he'd spent in jail no period had been as hard as the 15 months of Israel's intensified siege in Gaza.

Abu Radaha's sister expressed joy after a sleepless night. "I kept thinking about whether Amir would be released this time or not," she told AFP.

Unlike previous releases, the prisoners wore jackets rather than openly displaying their prison garb.

Earlier Saturday, images broadcast on Israeli public television showed Palestinian prisoners ahead of their release wearing sweatshirts featuring the prison service logo, a Star of David, and the slogan: "We do not forget and we do not forgive."

In a statement, the Palestinian group Hamas condemned the Arabic slogan on the prisoners' sweatshirts, calling it "racist" and a "flagrant violation of humanitarian laws."

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group had said Israel was to release 369 incarcerated people in the latest exchange.

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The Palestinians were freed in exchange for three Israelis held hostage in Gaza. It was the latest such swap under a January 19 ceasefire deal that ended more than 15 months of all-out Israeli assault.

Israel had warned Hamas that it must free three living hostages this weekend or face a resumption of the attacks, after the group said it would pause releases over Israeli violations of the truce deal.