The Israeli military said three hostages held in Gaza had been handed over to its forces and returned to Israeli territory, while the first Palestinian prisoners had also been released, as a hostage and prisoner exchange deal was concluded. began on Sunday after 15 months of brutal conflict.
Television footage appears to show the three women entering a Red Cross vehicle in Gaza after getting out of a pick-up truck, surrounded by a large crowd and dozens of masked and armed activists. Israel said they were Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, the first of a dozen captives expected to be freed.
The handover comes hours after a six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, raising hopes of a pause – and potentially an end – to the most bloody decades of history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: a war that left Gaza in ruins, consumed Israeli society and brought the Middle East to the brink of a full-scale regional war.
As the fighting ended on Sunday, Gaza residents took to the streets in celebration and began returning to the ruins of their homes, while in some towns Hamas militants and uniformed police were present after months guerrilla warfare. In Israel, relatives of the hostages and their supporters gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the first returns live.
The truce, the first step in a three-phase deal negotiated last week by U.S.-led mediators after months of failed attempts, was scheduled to take effect Sunday morning. But the fragile ceasefire began nearly three hours late, with Israel continuing to bombard Gaza after Hamas was slow to provide the names of the hostages to be released.
Some 90 Palestinian prisoners were released early Monday in exchange for the hostages. A large bus carrying dozens of Palestinian detainees rolled out of the gates of the Israeli Ofer prison, just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.
According to a list provided by the Palestinian Authority Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, all those released were women or minors.
The next exchange will take place in seven days, with the release of four additional hostages.
The chances of the deal being fully implemented remain uncertain, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under intense pressure from his far-right allies to resume fighting once the first phase of the deal is reached. finished.
The fighting in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ shock attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took another 250 hostages, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with a devastating attack on Gaza, which killed more than 46,000 people, according to Palestinian officials. This has displaced most of the coastal enclave’s 2.3 million residents and fueled a humanitarian catastrophe.
As the release of the first hostages approached, a crowd gathered in a Tel Aviv square renamed Hostage Square after the Hamas attack. Yair Keshet, whose nephew Yarden Bibas, Yarden’s wife Shiri, and their two young children are among those expected to be released under the first phase of the deal, said the entire family was “waiting “.
“That’s all we can do. There is at least an agreement now. But every day is a mine. There could be issues (that would derail the deal),” he said.
In Gaza, celebrations of the end of Israel’s devastating bombardment spread early in the day, but were tempered as many of the hundreds of thousands of displaced people began returning home only to find only ruins.
“People arrive in Jabalia, are shocked, cry and return to Gaza City,” said Mohamed Abu Ismail, after returning to the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza. “There is nothing to sustain life here. Even the schools that sheltered the displaced were burned. All features of Jabalia were erased, nothing remained standing. »
Mohamed Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense agency, said his teams were beginning to recover bodies from areas evacuated by Israeli forces, while police who operated when Hamas ruled the enclave had begun to redeploy in cities.
Hamas fighters also began to resurface, with images showing armed men in cars driving in convoy through various locations in the enclave, including Rafah and Khan Younis.
Under the agreement reached last week, the first phase will involve a six-week truce, during which Hamas will release 33 of the 97 hostages still in Gaza – including children, women, the sick and the elderly – in exchange of approximately 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
Meanwhile, displaced Palestinians will be allowed to return home, Israeli troops will partially withdraw from the enclave and humanitarian aid will increase sharply.
On the 16th day of the first phase, Israel and Hamas are expected to begin negotiating the details of the second phaseduring which the remaining hostages will be released in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a definitive end to the war.
The final phase will involve the return of the bodies of the deceased hostages and the start of the reconstruction of Gaza.
But in a sign of the hostility of the Israeli far right towards the agreement, shortly before its entry into force, the far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, withdrew his party from Power Jewish government, reducing Netanyahu’s majority in Israel’s 120 seats. Parliament by just two.
Ben-Gvir’s ultranationalist ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also threatened to suppress his Religious Zionism party if the war did not resume after the first stage of the agreement. This would deprive Netanyahu of his majority.
Smotrich said on Sunday that he would overthrow the government if it did not resume fighting in a way that led to Israel “taking control of and governing the entire Gaza Strip.”
Netanyahu has previously denied that Israel seeks to rule Gaza after the war. But he said Saturday that the United States supports Israel’s right to resume fighting if negotiations on the second phase fail.
He insisted that Israeli forces would maintain “full control” of the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, which separates Gaza from Egypt. “If we must return to combat, we will do it in new ways, and…. . . with great force,” Netanyahu said.
Mike Waltz, US President-elect Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, said Washington would support Israel if Hamas reneged on the deal, adding that “Hamas will never rule Gaza.”
Additional reporting by Myles McCormick