The first three hostages released by Hamas under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal have reached Israeli territory, the Israeli military said on Sunday, hours after the agreement took effect.
The three women – named by the Israeli military as Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher – were transferred by the Palestinian militant group Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday afternoon.
Television footage showed armed fighters in Gaza holding back large crowds as the three women were handed over.
They were then transferred to Israeli forces and were set to undergo a medical assessment before being transported to a hospital in Tel Aviv, where they were to be greeted by family.
The Israeli military posted on X: “They’re home.”
The first 90 or so Palestinian prisoners were due to be released in Israel later on Sunday and taken by security forces either to the West Bank or Gaza.
Following months of stalemate in the 15-month Gaza war, a three-stage ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was brokered earlier this week.
The first stage of the ceasefire agreement foresees the release of 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, while the Israeli army is to withdraw from densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.
The deal was announced on Wednesday, capping months-long efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire and Hamas to release the hostages it is holding.
Ceasefire takes effect after delay
The long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect at 11:15 am (0915 GMT) on Sunday, after being delayed by several hours due to what Hamas called “technical reasons.”
The ceasefire had originally been expected to begin at 8:30 am but was pushed back when Israel said Hamas had failed to provide the names of the three hostages to be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Israel continued attacking Gaza as it waited for the list of names, with 19 people were killed throughout the territory, according to the Hamas-controlled civil defence.
Hostages released after 471 days
Friends and relatives of the three women clapped and cheered in Hostages Square in central Tel Aviv when their release was confirmed, 471 days after they were taken captive in the October 7, 2023 attacks.
In a statement to Britain’s Press Association news agency after being reunited with her daughter in Israel, freed hostage Emily Damari’s mother Mandy thanked “everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal, and who never stopped saying her name.”
“While Emily’s nightmare in Gaza is over, for too many other families the impossible wait continues,” she added.
Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival near the border with the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023 after trying to flee with her friends in a car, according to reports.
She was shot in the hand during the Hamas-led assault on the festival.
The two other women were kidnapped from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza as hostages on the same day.
UN says 4,000 truckloads of food and flour set to enter Gaza
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement also provides for a rapid increase in aid deliveries for more than 2 million Gazans, 90% of whom are affected by hunger, according to UN figures.
The UN World Food Programme stated that aid was delivered to the Gaza Strip through both the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south and Zikim in the north.
According to Arab media reports, nearly 200 trucks were en route to the Palestinian territory.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has prepared 4,000 truckloads of aid supplies for the Gaza Strip, it reported.
Almost 500 days of war
The Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed out of the coastal territory and killed some 1,200 people in southern Israeli communities.
Israel responded with massive bombardment of Gaza, laying much of the sealed-off territory to ruins, and also launched a ground incursion with the stated aim of fully eradicating Hamas.
More than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to Palestinian estimates.
|DPA International