TEL AVIV – Jubilant Israelis welcomed the return of the first wave of hostages from the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, hours after a long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, prompting many displaced Palestinians to return to their homes on foot after 15 months of displacement. Brutal conflict. .
Many hope the hard-fought reprieve will bring a permanent end to the fighting that has led to the deaths of more than 46,800 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces in Gaza, according to local health officials, and allow the Strip, much of which has been reduced to rubble, to rebuild. As a result of air strikes and violent Israeli bombing.
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President Joe Biden celebrated the safe return of three hostages — the first in a coordinated effort expected to continue in the coming days — and said a ceasefire had been reached due to “pressure Israel is putting on US-backed Hamas.”
Biden said in televised statements on his last day in office: “Today the guns fell silent in Gaza.”
Hundreds of aid trucks have begun entering Gaza, which has seen critical infrastructure destroyed following Israel’s response on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a cross-border terror attack that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people and captured 251 others. As hostages.
Gazans on Sunday took the rare opportunity to see what, if any, of their homes remained after the violent Israeli offensive, which destroyed or damaged most of the Strip’s buildings and displaced nearly all of its 2 million residents. Amid the destruction, some celebrated in the streets, marking the start of the fragile truce. NBC News crews in Gaza captured large crowds of families moving near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, mostly on foot.
One of the families was riding a cart pulled by a donkey. “To Rafah, to Rafah, inside, in Gaza,” a smiling little boy chanted as he drove the cart.
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, a crowd of people cheered and applauded as news came that the hostages were being held by the Red Cross just after 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) and then safely crossed into Israeli territory.
The released hostages are all young women: Doron Steinbrecher, 31, who was taken from Kibbutz Kfar Azza on October 7, a veterinary nurse; Rumi Gonen, 24, taken from the Nova Music Festival on October 7; Emily Damari, 28, a British-Israeli national taken from Kibbutz Kfar Azza on October 7, is a key figure in the kibbutz’s youth community.
A video posted by the Israeli army showed the three women getting out of a Red Cross vehicle, smiling and hugging the waiting Israeli forces. Two of them had their hands covered with bandages. They were later reunited with their mothers in Israel – with each pair of mothers and daughters hugging each other – and were scheduled to undergo a medical examination at a hospital near Tel Aviv.
The Coordinator for Hostages, Returnees and Missing Persons Affairs in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that four additional live hostages are expected to be released within seven days. She added that their families will be informed of the names of those who will be released 24 hours before that date.
Biden said he expects at least two Americans to be released as part of this initial phase, where 33 hostages will be released in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The first Americans to be released will be Keith Siegel, 65, on the 14th day of the ceasefire, then Sagi Dekel Chen, 36, who was wounded, according to a senior administration official and a diplomatic official. The other five Americans, living and dead, will not be released until the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, officials said. It is expected that among them is a dual citizen, Aidan Alexander, 20 years old, whose condition is unknown.
According to the agreement, Israel is scheduled to release 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, all of whom are children and women, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority. For every hostage released, 30 Palestinian prisoners will be released – 50 if the hostage is a soldier.
The cessation of fighting was initially set for 8:30 a.m. local time, but the cessation of fighting was delayed by a few hours and began after 11:15 a.m. The Gaza Civil Defense Agency reported that at least 19 people were killed and 36 injured earlier after the postponement was announced.
A total of 94 people captured and transferred to Gaza on October 7, 2023, are believed to be in Hamas captivity, along with four people held by Hamas since 2014. At least 34 of those were taken hostage during the Hamas operation – and the attacks are believed to have been Its leaders are dead, while two hijackers who were captured in 2014 have died.
The ceasefire is expected to stop more than a year of ferocious Israeli bombing, but it will also open the floodgates to much-needed aid, with up to 600 trucks a day entering the Strip, according to the World Health Organization. Food, medicine and fuel shortages, combined with deadly violence, have created an escalating humanitarian crisis marked by widespread hunger and disease.
If all phases of the ceasefire go ahead as planned, it will bring relief – and perhaps closure – to the families of hostages trapped in the Strip under terrifying and dangerous conditions, as well as to Palestinian families whose loved ones have been detained by the occupying forces. Israeli military.
Negotiations on the second phase are expected to begin by the sixteenth day of the first phase. Biden said on Wednesday that the tour would aim to achieve a “permanent end to the war,” as the outgoing administration and President-elect Donald Trump pushed for a solution to the conflict before the president’s inauguration on Monday.