Israel-Hamas truce holding after first hostage-prisoner swap

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: A fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was holding Monday, following the dramatic exchange of three hostages for 90 Palestinian prisoners in an agreement aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in Gaza.

The three hostages released Sunday, all women, were reunited with their families and taken to hospital in central Israel where a doctor said they were in stable condition.

Hours later in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian prisoners released by Israel left Ofer prison on buses, with jubilant crowds celebrating their arrival.

As the ceasefire took effect, thousands of displaced, war-weary Palestinians set off across the devastated Gaza Strip to return home.

The truce began on the eve of the Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as US president, who has claimed credit for the agreement after months of fruitless negotiations.

If all goes according to plan, the implementation of the truce will take weeks if not months, with only the first phase of the truce agreed so far by all the parties.

Late night tears and hugs for released Palestinian prisoners

Despite the risks, hundreds of Palestinians were streaming through an apocalyptic landscape in Jabalia in northern Gaza, one of the worst-hit areas in the war.

“We are finally in our home. There is no home left, just rubble, but it’s our home,” said Rana Mohsen, 43.

The initial 42-day truce was brokered by mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt.

It should enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, as more Israeli hostages are released in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Under the agreement, Israeli forces should leave some areas of Gaza as the parties begin negotiating the terms of a permanent ceasefire.

During the initial truce, Israeli hostages, 31 of whom were taken by the group, are due to be returned from Gaza in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians.

Reunited

The first three released hostages, Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, returned home to Israel after Hamas fighters handed them over to the Red Cross in a bustling square in Gaza City, surrounded by gunmen in fatigues and balaclavas.

Gazans head back to destroyed homes, search for loved ones

“In Emily’s own words, she is the happiest girl in the world; she has her life back,” Damari’s mother Mandy said on Monday, adding that she was “doing much better than any of us could have expected”, even after she had lost two fingers.

Damari, a British-Israeli dual national, was at home in Kfar Aza in southern Israel when Hamas gunmen stormed her home on October 7, 2023, injuring her hands and legs and taking her hostage.

Steinbrecher’s family said in a statement that “our heroic Dodo, who survived 471 days in Hamas captivity, begins her rehabilitation journey today”.

In Tel Aviv, there was elation among the crowd who had waited for hours for the news of their release, with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group hailing their return as “a beacon of light”.

On Monday, however, there was anxiety in Israel over the next phases of the truce, with columnist Sima Kadmon warning in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that the coming hostage releases may be more painful.

“Some of them will arrive on gurneys and wheelchairs. Others will arrive in coffins. Some will arrive wounded and injured, in dire emotional condition that will prevent some of the footage from being broadcast,” she wrote.

Hamas hands over first Israeli hostages as Gaza truce begins

Journalist Avi Issacharoff, one of the creators of hit series Fauda, lashed out against the Israeli government for what he said was its failure “to engage in any way on the ‘day after’ the war.”

Following the return of the three women hostages, the Israel Prison Service confirmed the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners early Monday.

In the town of Beitunia, near Ofer prison, Palestinians cheered and chanted as buses carrying them arrived, with some climbing atop and unfurling a Hamas flag.

“All the prisoners being released today feel like family to us. They are part of us, even if they’re not blood relatives,” Amanda Abu Sharkh, 23, told AFP.

One freed detainee, Abdul Aziz Muhammad Atawneh, described prison as “hell, hell, hell”.

The next hostage-prisoner swap should take place on Saturday, a senior Hamas official told AFP.

International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric called on all sides to “adhere to their commitments to ensure the next operations can take place safely”.

‘Nothing left’

UN relief chief Tom Fletcher said 630 trucks carrying desperately needed aid had entered into Gaza in the hours after the start of the truce, with 300 of them headed to the north of the territory.

The truce is intended to pave the way for a permanent end to the war, but a second phase has yet to be finalised.

Thousands of Palestinians carrying tents, clothes and their personal belongings were seen going home on Sunday, after the war displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million.

The World Food Programme said it was moving full throttle to get food to as many Gazans as possible.

“We’re trying to reach a million people within the shortest possible time,” said its deputy executive director, Carl Skau.