By SAM METZ and JALAL BWAITEL

BEITUNIA, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians celebrated on Monday as Israel began releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinians from prison in exchange for Hamas’s freeing of Israeli hostages under a breakthrough ceasefire deal in Gaza .

Hundreds cheered as two buses carrying dozens of released prisoners arrived in Beitunia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The freed men, with their heads’ shaved, descended from the bus, flashing V-for-victory signs; some were lifted up onto the shoulders of the crowd, while others sunk into chairs nearby exhausted.

“It was an indescribable journey of suffering — hunger, unfair treatment, oppression, torture and curses — more than anything you could imagine,” said Kamal Abu Shanab, a 51-year-old Fatah member from the West Bank town o

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