Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
The truce allowed Palestinians to return to bombed-out neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid. Elsewhere in Gaza, crowds cheered Hamas fighters who emerged from hiding.
Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands of people waited to welcome them. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis cheered and wept in a square outside the defense headquarters as a live broadcast from Gaza showed three female hostages getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by Hamas fighters.
The Israeli military said Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari had been reunited with their mothers and released a video showing them in apparent good health. Damari, who lost two fingers when she was shot the day she was abducted, smiled and embraced her mother as she held up a bandaged hand.
"I would like you to tell them: Romi, Doron and Emily – an entire nation embraces you. Welcome home," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a commander by phone.
At Sheba Medical Center, the women were reunited with their families in long embraces that went from tears to laughter. A smiling Damari was draped in an Israeli flag. They were among more than 250 people abducted and 1,200 killed in a Hamas raid on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, Israel has said.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to medical officials in Gaza. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.
The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to Gaza and 33 of the nearly 100 remaining Israeli and foreign hostages to go free over the six-week first phase in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians picked their way through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal that had been bombed into oblivion in the war's most intense fighting.
"I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months," said Aya, who said she had been displaced from her Gaza City home for more than a year.
The first phase of the truce took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip.
That last-minute blitz killed 13 people, Palestinian health authorities said. Israel blamed Hamas for being late to deliver the names of hostages it would free, and said it had struck terrorists. Hamas said the holdup in providing the list was technical.
"Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," U.S. President Joe Biden said on his last full day in office, welcoming a truce that had eluded U.S. diplomacy for more than a year. "We've reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States."
For Hamas, the truce provided an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding. Hamas policemen dressed in blue police uniforms swiftly deployed in some areas, and armed fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis, where a crowd cheered, "Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades," the group's armed wing.
"All the resistance factions are staying in spite of Netanyahu," one fighter told Reuters.
TRUMP AIDE: 'HAMAS WILL NEVER GOVERN GAZA'
There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas will test the patience of Israel, which has said it will resume fighting unless the militant group is fully dismantled.
Hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir quit the cabinet over the ceasefire, though his party said it would not try to bring down Netanyahu's government. The other most prominent hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, stayed in the government but said he would quit if the war ends without Hamas completely destroyed.
The truce took effect on the eve of Monday's inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Trump's national security adviser-designate, Mike Waltz, said that if Hamas reneges on the agreement, the United States would support Israel "in doing what it has to do."
"Hamas will never govern Gaza. That is completely unacceptable," he said.
The streets in shattered Gaza City were already busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones. Several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.
Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, of Gaza City said that while the ceasefire may have spared lives, the losses and destruction made it no time for celebration.
"We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry," he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
35 Comments
Login to comment
itsonlyrocknroll
Images of Hamas police emerging on to the streets as the ceasefire took effect underscored how far Israel remains from its originally stated war aims of destroying the Islamist group that has ruled in Gaza since 2007.
With the remaining Israeli hostages, another 2 million Palestinians, give or take 47,000 lost souls, continue to be held by Hamas terrorists.
This devastating war underlines the horrors Hamas Islamic extremism will continue to inflict on the Palestinian people, men women children families.
All to justify the sicken hatred Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran perpetrates on the Jew.
Capuchin
The fact that you feel the need to invert reality to shed responsibility shows that you know that what Israel has been doing to Gaza for the last 15 months is gravely, gravely wrong.
Fighto!
Promising signs.
Terror group Hamas had better stick to the deal and release ALL hostages. If they don't, they know exactly what is coming.
Aly Rustom
Exactly. Well said.
Capuchin
Illegal colonist. Call a spade a spade. Why does mainstream media feel the need to adopt the preferred double speak of the illegal occupier.
It's hard to tell if she's talking about wiping out Gazans or Hamas. She seems to find the find that Gazans are returning to be rather troubling.
garymalmgren
Hi Fighto
RE: Terror group Hamas had better stick to the deal and release ALL hostages. If they don't, they know exactly what is coming.
What do you think is coming after all of the hostages have been released or accounted for?
WoodyLee
One thing is damn clear by now Hamas is NOT alone, and if it really is then it is one hell of a fighting force.
Israel and it's bakers are fools if they think that Hamas can be defeated!?? and not after this onslaught, experts now know that Hamas is backed by the very same people that are backing Israel and those who wish to and end to it's occupation two cards are being played at the same time.
Bibi's absolute victory over Hamas will NEVER happen simply becz. the players in the region want's to keep Hamas as an asset for the future Palestinian State.
itsonlyrocknroll
The fact, the reality still remains had Hamas not committed on October 7th an atrocity, in the name of Islamic terror, the Hamas’ military wing – the Qassam Brigades slaughtered 1200 took then 47,000 Plastinian life would have been spared Gaza would not be a wasteland.
“Human Rights Watch research found that the Hamas-led assault on October 7 was designed to kill civilians and take as many people as possible hostage,” said Ida Sawyer, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “The October 7 atrocities should spur a global call to action for an end to all abuses against civilians in Israel and Palestine.”
Quote .......
1200 people were brutally murdered, mutilated, burned, raped and desecrated by Hamas terrorists, and that 240 people were abducted from their homes and taken hostage
WoodyLee
Bibi, Ben Gvir, and B. Smotrich, three war criminals that should be handed over to the ICC, as soon as this deal is over.
WoodyLee
Reports, The 3 released Israeli Hostages were shocked at the amount of damage surrounding them and the number of Hamas fighters protecting them while driven back to Israel.
Sanjinosebleed
Wonder if the media will gush as much when the 90 Palestinian hostages (all women and children supposedly) are returned to Gaza?! What hypocrisy the western media spouts!
Israel is and has always been the bad guy here!
Capuchin
The fact is that Hamas would never have come into existence if it weren't for the Israeli occupation.
Since you're citing a Human Rights Watch report I assume you consider them to be a credible organization. How do you feel about their Genocide report on Israel? Is are you selective with your truths?
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/19/israels-crime-extermination-acts-genocide-gaza
itsonlyrocknroll
I am not even suggesting Netanyahu's government is not complicit to the outcomes both in Gaza and Lebanon.
Histrionics, centuries of wars, conflict, religious intolerance has also contributed to stand off after stand off.
The priority, urgency is to halt this middle eastern war, a ceasefire, the release of the hostages etc.
Then the real ideological brick wall present a barrier, the harshest reality, a solution is beyond diplomacy.
The ICJ could well have made an historic error. Politicising its role, as an arbiter for truth justice.
A globally diminished ICJ, could put the future of the UN beyond recovery.
stormcrow
Impossible to imagine all of the horrors they’ve endured.
Sanjinosebleed
You mean the Palestinians right?!
stormcrow
Hopefully all of the Israeli hostages who are still alive will be returned to their loved ones.
WoodyLee
CONGRATULATION to all the Palestinian and Israeli families for getting their loved ones back Home. Glad to see the families celebrating the return of their loved one.
Yrral
Israelis have open the gates of hell,now they are being consumed by it
theFu
Hopefully, the terrorist won't try taking hostages again. Was 47000 dead and 2+M homeless sufficient to learn the lesson? I hope it was.
I look forward to the day when peaceful negotiations lead to Israels and the Palestinians equally unhappy with the resulting agreement.
Blacklabel
Good news! So glad the election of Trump was able to trigger this to happen after 15 long months of nothing happening.
A 3 for 90 trade isn’t optimal, but glad 3 people are home.
u_s__reamer
Send the reconstruction bill for Gaza to Netanyahu who, as the occupier, is responsible under international law for the welfare and safety of the occupied.
Attilathehungry
The horror the Palestinians endure is the horror of being governed by Hamas. Governed by terrorists who steal relief funds and goods meant to help civilians, and use them to create terror tunnels and rockets.
It also shows the value that each side puts on human life. Thirty Hamas criminals released for every single innocent Israeli hostage. And we wonder why they so easily use their own people as meat shields...
Sanjinosebleed
War criminals is Israel being portrayed as the victims is the height of hypocrisy!
changamangaliay
Israel completely failed. Murdered thousands of Palestinians as much as they can, bombed most of the Gaza but was still unable to find Israeli prisoners and finally have to negotiate with Palestinians for their release.
asusa tabi
Kidnapping is now an internationally-approved tactic to commute life sentences for mass murderers.
What a deeply sick society that comes out to the streets to taunt three Jewish women hostages being handed over to the Red Cross, who in over a year all it did was now to play uber.
quoting Jonathan Greenblatt: "What we are seeing right now in Gaza -- masked gunmen surrounding hostages as they are released, civilians jeering and taunting innocent women who were kidnapped and tortured -- demonstrates the utter depravity and sheer evil of Hamas and their supporters for the world to see."
NB
Hamas is not a remedy for a problem. It is the source of a problem.
Hamas is a descendent of those extremists among the Palestinians who refused to coexist with the Jews already in the 1940s.
We have two nations on the same land. This is a simple reality. Both nations have roots in the land, and have good reasons to stay on it. Any ambition of any of the two nations to have exclusive ownership of the land and wipe out the other is madness.
One of the two nations has endorsed the two-state solution, according to which there should be two states, with one of the two states being mixed. The other nation refuses, and insists on commiting genocide to the other.
u_s__reamer
1200 people were brutally murdered, mutilated, burned, raped and desecrated by Hamas terrorists, and that 240 people were abducted from their homes and taken hostage
This is outdated Israeli propaganda debunked over 1 year ago but obviously still used by western governments and their MSM to justify the genocidal slaughter of civilians. Many thousands of Gazans have been abducted and treated brutally by the Israelis. It will be interesting to compare their treatment with that of those held by Hamas.
NB
The denial and distortion generated by the Palestinian propaganda machine do not work.
RichardPearce
No one from either group has been lawfully arrested, tried, and sent to prison, so why use different terms for them?
Yes, calling those the forces of the government of Gaza has taken and held 'prisoners' or those the forces of the government of Israel has taken and held 'hostages' would produce howls of self righteous but baseless outrage from politicians and supporters of ONE side, but the different terms, with very different connotations, is not considered journalism by any standard.
So, just call them all 'detainees'. It will still set of howls from some, but make their efforts to pretend that those howls have a basis pretty ridiculous to most people.
NB
There is a difference between abducting people at random, just because they belong to a certain ethnic group, and arresting specific people.
RichardPearce
Poor NB, struggling to find a way to refute the truth that the two groups of people share equal legal status, and running into the problem that the scofflaw regime didn't 'arrest specific people' but did 'abduct people at random, just because they belong to a certain ethnic group'
RichardPearce
Should I point out that the conditions in the notorious jails of the Scofflaw regime include torture, rape, murder by 'guards', plus a lack of food as apparent in the photos of those released last time around.
NB
This is libel.
Among those that were kidnapped ny Hamas on October 7 is Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old on that day, and his brother Ariel, 4 years old. Their grandmother and grandfather were murdered in the massacre.
The hostages are held by Hamas in tunnels tunnels, without food and hygyenic conditions, and are being tortured.
NB
Among those who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 is Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old on that day, and his brother Ariel, 4 years old. Their grandmother and grandfather, Margit and Yossi Silberman, were murdered in the massacre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_the_Bibas_family