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By Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy, Melanie Lidman and Sam Mednick
Ramallah, West Bank: The first three hostages have been released from Gaza and the first Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli custody as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold following 15 months of war.
Palestinians across Gaza began making their way home with mixed emotions and the first trucks with a surge of humanitarian aid began to enter the devastated territory ahead of more difficult steps over the next six weeks.
The ceasefire that began on Sunday raised hopes for ending the devastating conflict and returning the nearly 100 remaining hostages abducted in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. But major questions remain about whether fighting will resume after the six-week first phase.
First came the release of Emily Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, in a tense handover to the Red Cross on a Gaza City street. Footage showed them surrounded by a crowd of thousands, accompanied by masked, armed men wearing green Hamas headbands.
The women were taken to Israeli forces and then into Israel, where they hugged family members fiercely and wept. Damari was shown raising her bandaged hand in triumph. The military said she lost two fingers in the October 7 attack.
In Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered to watch the news on large screens and erupted in applause. For months, many had gathered in the square weekly to demand a ceasefire deal.
“I’m excited, I was so nervous, that they would come safe and alive to their mothers’ hands. They were in the hands of terrorists for 471 days, three young women,” said Shay Dickmann, whose cousin was found slain by her Hamas captors in August.
A bus carrying released Palestinian prisoners arrives in the West Bank city of Beitunia on Monday.Credit: AP
The Israeli military shared video showing the women’s families gathered in what appeared to be a military facility crying out in emotion as they watched footage of the handover.
Pictures shared by the families showed the three women embracing their mothers at a reception centre. Damari beamed broadly and waved a bandaged hand to family on the other end of a video call.
Emily Damari and her mother Mandy near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel after Emily was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza.Credit: AP
The women were later flown to a hospital in Tel Aviv in a helicopter that Israeli media reported was piloted by the head of the Israeli Air Force.
“Romi, Doron, Emily, an entire nation embraces you,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
More than seven hours later, the first 90 Palestinian prisoners were released. According to a list provided by the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, all of those released were women or minors. They had been detained for what Israel called offences related to its security, from throwing stones to more serious accusations such as attempted murder.
Israel’s military, which occupies the West Bank, warned Palestinians against public celebration, but crowds surrounded the buses after they left the prison, some people climbing on top or waving flags, including those of Hamas.
There were fireworks and whistles, and shouts of “God is great”. Those released were hoisted onto others’ shoulders or embraced.
A view of destruction in the southern Gaza area of Rafah, which endured heavy Israeli attacks.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
The most prominent detainee freed was Khalida Jarrar, 62, a member of a secular leftist faction that was involved in attacks against Israel in the 1970s but later scaled back militant activities. Since her arrest in late 2023, she was held under indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders that were criticised by human rights groups.
The next release of hostages and prisoners is due on Saturday, with 33 more hostages and nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be freed over the ceasefire’s 42-day first phase. In just over two weeks, talks are to begin on the far more challenging second phase.
This is just the second ceasefire in the war, longer and more consequential than a weeklong pause in November 2023, with the potential to end the fighting for good.
But Netanyahu, who had been under pressure from the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump to achieve a deal before Trump’s inauguration, has said he has the new leader’s backing to continue fighting if necessary.
Meanwhile, Israel’s hardline national security minister said his Jewish Power faction was quitting the government in protest over the ceasefire, reflecting the political friction that some Israelis said delayed the deal. Itamar Ben-Gvir’s departure weakens Netanyahu’s coalition but will not affect the truce.
‘Joy mixed with pain’
Across Gaza, there was relief and grief. The fighting has killed tens of thousands, destroyed large areas and displaced most of the population.
“This ceasefire was a joy mixed with pain, because my son was martyred in this war,” said Rami Nofal, a displaced man from Gaza City.
Humanitarian aid trucks enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip on Monday.Credit: AP
Masked militants appeared at some celebrations, where crowds chanted slogans supporting them, according to Associated Press reporters in Gaza. The Hamas-run police began deploying in public after mostly lying low due to Israeli airstrikes.
Some families set off for home on foot, their belongings loaded on donkey carts.
In the southern city of Rafah, residents returned to find massive destruction. Some found human remains in the rubble, including skulls.
“It’s like you see in a Hollywood horror movie,” resident Mohamed Abu Taha said as he inspected the ruins of his family’s home.
Already, Israeli forces were pulling back from areas. Residents of Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya in northern Gaza told the AP they didn’t see Israeli troops there.
One resident said they saw bodies in the streets that appeared to have been there for weeks.
Two children wave Palestinian flags on a wrecked car as displaced Palestinians start to return to Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
Israelis divided over deal
In Israel, people remained divided over the agreement.
Asher Pizem, 35, from the city of Sderot, said the deal had merely postponed the next confrontation with Hamas. He also criticised Israel for allowing aid into Gaza, saying it would contribute to the militant group’s revival.
“They will take the time and attack again,” he said while viewing Gaza’s smouldering ruins from a small hill in southern Israel.
When Biden was asked on Sunday whether he has any concerns about Hamas regrouping, he said no.
Hamas said the first group of prisoners freed in exchange for the three women hostages included 69 women and 21 teenage boys.
There are currently 10,400 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, not including detainees arrested in Gaza during the last 15 months of conflict, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society.
A Red Cross convoy arrives to collect Israeli hostages released after the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect.Credit: AP
Immense toll
The toll of the war has been immense, and new details will now emerge. The head of the Rafah municipality in Gaza, Ahmed al-Sufi, said a large part of the infrastructure, including water, electricity and road networks, was destroyed, in addition to thousands of homes.
There should be a surge of humanitarian aid, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza daily, far more than Israel allowed before. The UN humanitarian agency said more than 630 trucks with aid entered after the ceasefire started, with at least 300 going to hard-hit northern Gaza.
“This is a moment of tremendous hope,” humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said.
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the fatalities, but does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and militants abducted around 250 others. More than 100 hostages were freed during the weeklong ceasefire in November 2023.
Some 90 per cent of Gaza’s population has been displaced. Rebuilding – if the ceasefire reaches its final phase – will take several years at least. Major questions about Gaza’s future, political and otherwise, remain unresolved.
The first three released hostages
Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher are the three hostages believed to have been released.
Romi Gonen, 24, a dancer, was abducted by Hamas gunmen from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. Gonen spent hours hiding from the gunmen with several friends before being shot in the hand. She was on the phone with her family when they heard her say, “I am going to die, today.” The last thing they heard the attackers saying, in Arabic, was “She’s alive, let’s take her.” Her phone was later traced to a location in the Gaza Strip.
Romi Gonen, right, and her mother Merav hold each other near kibbutz Reim, southern Israel after Romi was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza.Credit: AP
Over the past 15 months, Romi’s mother Merav Gonen became one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and travelling abroad on missions.
“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” she told The Associated Press on the six-month anniversary of Hamas’ attack.
Doron Steinbrecher, 31, a veterinary nurse was seized from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village and one of the communities worst hit in the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. A few hours after the attack began she phoned her parents to say she was scared and that the gunmen had arrived at her building. She then sent a voice message to her friends saying “They’ve arrived, they have me.”
Doron Steinbrecher (left) and her mother Simona hold each other near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel, after Doron was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza.Credit: AP
That message was key in helping her family understand that she had been kidnapped.
Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on January 26, 2024, along with two female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but sparked concern because she looked tired, weak and gaunt.
Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
This undated photo, provided by Hostages Family Forum, shows Israeli hostage Emily Damari who has been released.Credit: AP
She lived in a small apartment in a neighbourhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighbourhood.
She grew up in London and is a fan of the Tottenham Hotspur soccer team.
Israel’s military said Damari lost two fingers in the attack that sparked the war.
According to her mother, she was shot in the hand, injured by shrapnel in her leg, blindfolded, bundled into the back of her own car, and driven to Gaza.
Israelis celebrate the release of three hostages who had been held captive by Hamas in Gaza as they gather in Tel Aviv, Israel.Credit: AP
US President Joe Biden welcomed the ceasefire and said hundreds of trucks were entering the seaside enclave to help its civilians.
“Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent,” he said, adding that it was now up to the incoming Trump administration to ensure the ceasefire deal was fully implemented.
The ceasefire agreement came into effect on the eve of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to the White House on Monday.
When the shooting stopped, Palestinians burst into the streets, some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives.
“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, told Reuters via a chat app.
AP, Reuters
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