Israel-Hamas ceasefire: First hostages released, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher freed

Celebrations in the street, fighting paused and the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement in now in effect as the first Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas are freed and reunited with loved ones.

Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were three hostages held in tunnels by Gaza since October 7, 2023.

On Sunday, they were brought by car, handed to over to the Red Cross, surrounded by hundred of Hamas soldiers, and returned to Israel.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis in a square outside the defence headquarters watched a live broadcast from the Gaza Strip showing the hostage release on a giant screen.

The crowd cheered, embraced and wept as three female hostages regained their freedom.

The Israeli military said Ms Gonen, Ms Steinbrecher and Ms Damari had been reunited with their mothers at a meeting point inside Israel, close to the kibbutz and nearby music festival where they had been abducted in the Hamas raid that precipitated the war.

Ms Damari’s mother posted a photo on social media of her and her daughter video-calling loved ones, with the caption: “Emily is home” followed by a love heart emoji.

The first three hostages were taken by helicopter to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv to be evaluated and treated.

“The three released hostages, together with their mothers, just landed at a hospital, where they will be reunited with the rest of their families and receive medical treatment,” the Israel Defence Forces said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden, during his final full day in office, said: “Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent.”

“The road to this deal has been not easy at all, it was a long road.

“But we’ve reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States.”

Palestinians celebrate in the streets

Palestinians have burst into the streets to celebrate and return to the rubble of their bombed-out homes after a ceasefire deal halted fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Armed Hamas fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting.

In the north of the territory, bombed into oblivion in the war’s most intense fighting, people picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal.

“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months,” Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza city who has been sheltering in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, said after the fighting stopped.

“I feel alive again.”

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, buses were awaiting the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention.

Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for the hostages includes 69 women and 21 teenage boys.

Guns fall silent after last minute delay in ceasefire agreement

The first phase of the truce in the 15-month-old war between Israel and Hamas took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip.

That last-minute Israeli attack killed 13 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel blamed Hamas for being late to deliver the names of hostages it would free, and said it had struck terrorists.

Hamas said the hold-up in providing the list was a technical glitch.

Ceasefire agreement explained:

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to the Gaza Strip and 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still held there to go free over the six-week first phase in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

For Hamas, the truce could provide an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding.

Hamas policemen dressed in blue police uniform swiftly deployed in some areas.

People who had gathered to cheer the fighters chanted “Greetings to al-Qassam Brigades” - the group’s armed wing.

“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 ceasefire agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and comes into effect on the eve of the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, who had said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages were freed before he took office.

Gaza city resident Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, sheltering with his family in Khan Younis, said that while the ceasefire may have spared lives, the loss of lives and scale of destruction made it no time for celebrations.

“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry,” he said.

Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings in the hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect.

The World Food Programme said they began to cross on Sunday morning.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into the Gaza Strip every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel.

Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks that reduced the Gaza Strip to a wasteland, according to medical officials in the enclave.

About 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.

- With Reuters, PA and AP.