The release of prisoners sparked scenes of joy in the West Bank - images Israel wanted to avoid
The streets of Beitunia were flooded with people as fireworks exploded in the night sky.
After hours of delays, the buses carrying some of the 90 Palestinians slowly made their way through the crowds.
As released prisoners disembarked in the early hours of the morning, they were mobbed by patient family members and loved ones - swept along in the pure joy of the moment.
Israel didn't want these displays of jubilation - it doesn't like the release of prisoners to be used as a sign of victory for Hamas.
Over the next six weeks, nearly 2,000 prisoners will be released. About 100 of them are serving life sentences for violent attacks on Israelis.
But most of those freed on day one had been held without charge or were convicted of lesser crimes.
Palestinian teacher and activist Hadeel Shatara had been held without charge for seven months by Israel in administrative detention.
"There's no case against me. There's a secret file against me so I really don't know what I did," she told Sky News.
"So they put you for a renewable six months, telling you that there's a secret file against you, we cannot tell you what you did but you're going to stay behind bars," she said she was told.
For Palestinians, the prisoner embodies resistance against Israel's military occupation. They accuse the Jewish state of using imprisonment as a way of controlling and pacifying the population as settlements expand on the land.
But the images of prisoners being released will cause anger in Israel, especially amongst those who view the ceasefire deal as a surrender to Hamas - the perpetrators of the 7 October terror attack.
These scenes will be repeated in the weeks ahead providing of course that the fragile ceasefire deal survives.
-SKY NEWS
