Source : Perth Now news
As the Red Cross searched for the first victims to be freed under a peace agreement that put an end to fighting in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians poured into the streets to celebrate and then hurried back to the wreckage of their bombed-out properties.
The peace suddenly took effect after a three-hour pause, during which Jewish makes pounded the Gaza Strip from the heat in a last battle, killing 13 folks, according to Palestinian health officials.
A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ) was on its way to release Hamas ‘ first hostages as part of the ceasefire agreement, according to a source with Reuters.
According to the agreement, which calls for the release of 98 Israeli and foreign hostages in the strip over the course of a six-week second phase in exchange for thousands of Arab prisoners imprisoned in Israeli jails, three women were chosen as the first hostages that the militants chose to release on Sunday.
According to Jewish media, the army instructed the hostages ‘ mothers to travel to a conference location close to the Gaza Strip borders.
As the ceasefire took hold, Palestinians burst into the roads- some in event, others to visit the tombs of friends.
After being lost in the plains for 15 weeks, I feel like at last I found some water to drink. A displaced lady from Gaza town who has been residing in Deir al-Balah in the center of Gaza Strip for more than a year, Aya, who spoke to Reuters via a chat app, said she felt alive again.
People made their way through a devasted panorama of dust and twisted steel on narrow roads in the northwest of the territory, where some of the most powerful Jewish airstrikes and combats with the militants took place.
With crowds chanting and cheering throughout the southern city of Khan Younis, armed Hamas fighters carried the vehicle.
Hamas policemen, dressed in blue police uniform, deployed in some areas after months of trying to keep out of sight to avoid Israeli strikes.
” Greetings to al-Qassam Brigades,” the armed wing of Hamas, were chanted by those who had gathered to cheer the fighters.
” All the resistance factions are staying in spite of ( Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ) Netanyahu”, one fighter told Reuters.
” This is a ceasefire, a full and comprehensive one, God willing, and there will be no return to war in spite of him”.
The streets in the shattered Gaza city in the north of the territory were already crowded with people filming the scenes on their mobile phones while waving the Palestinian flag.
In the hours before the ceasefire was scheduled to end, long lines of trucks carrying food and supplies for the border crossed.
According to the World Food Programme, they started crossing on Sunday morning.
According to the agreement, 600 truckloads of aid, including 50 carrying fuel, are allowed into the Gaza Strip every day during the initial six-week ceasefire.
Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to the enclave’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.
According to Israeli records, the conflict between Israel and Hamas began when the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
According to medical officials in the enclave, more than 47, 000 Palestinians have since been killed as a result of Israeli-caused attacks that have rendered the Gaza Strip a wasteland.
About 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.
with AP
