- The US president says the Gaza ceasefire deal is ‘one of the most difficult negotiations’ he has ever been a part of
- An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that ‘Emily, Doron and Rumi are now in safe hands’.
- Hamas says the next prisoner exchange will take place next week on January 25.
Gaza/Cairo/Jerusalem: Palestinians took to the streets on Sunday to celebrate and return to the rubble of their bombed-out homes, and Hamas released the first three hostages under a ceasefire deal that ended fighting in Gaza. Stopped.
The next exchange of prisoners will take place on Saturday.
In a statement, Hamas said the next exchange of prisoners would take place next week, Saturday (January 25), Al Jazeera reported.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan says four Israeli prisoners will be released during the exchange.
The Israeli military says the captives are ‘now in safe hands’.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari just held a press briefing in which he said “Emily, Doron and Rumi are now in safe hands” and have been reunited with the Israeli military and domestic security agency Shin Bet.
Armed Hamas fighters shouted and chanted at crowds in the southern city of Khan Yunis. In the north of the area, bombed into oblivion in the heaviest fighting of the war, people picked their way along narrow roads through a ravaged landscape of rubble and twisted metal.
“I feel like I finally found water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months,” said a homeless woman from Gaza City, who has lived in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for more than a year. Taking shelter, she said after the fighting stopped. “I feel alive again.”
Freed Gaza hostages reunited with their mothers
The Israeli military said three female hostages freed by Hamas under the Gaza ceasefire deal have been captured, AFP reports. have been reunited with their mothers within Israel.
“The three returnees have just arrived at the initial reception point in the Gaza Strip, and are now meeting their mothers,” said the army, which shared a photo of freed hostage Emily Damari. His mother was smiling and waving. bandaged hands.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis watched the release of the hostages on a large screen in a square outside the defense headquarters. Crowds cheered, hugged and cried as the three female hostages could be seen getting out of a vehicle in Gaza surrounded by Hamas gunmen.
The hostages boarded International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles as a crowd of fighters chanted the name of Hamas’ armed wing.
Soon after, the Israeli military said the hostages, identified by the prime minister’s office as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, had arrived in Israeli territory. The Red Cross said he was in good health, an Israeli official told Reuters.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, buses were awaiting the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody. Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for hostages included 69 women and 21 teenage boys.
The first phase of a ceasefire in the 15-month-old war between Israel and Hamas came after a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery shelled the Gaza Strip.
According to Palestinian health officials, 13 people were killed in the last-minute Israeli blast. Israel accused Hamas of being slow to release the names of the hostages, saying it targeted terrorists. Hamas said the obstacle to providing the list was a technical glitch.
“Today the guns have fallen silent in Gaza,” said US President Joe Biden, who on his last full day in office welcomed a ceasefire that had kept US diplomacy at bay for more than a year.
The ceasefire calls for an end to fighting, aid to Gaza and the release of 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages held there during the six-week first phase in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
For Hamas, the ceasefire could provide an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding. Hamas policemen in blue police uniforms are increasingly deployed in some areas.
People gathered to cheer the fighters chanting “Salaam to the Al-Qassam Brigades” – the armed wing of the group.
“All the resistance factions are staying in spite of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” one fighter told Reuters. “This is a truce, a complete and comprehensive one God willed, and yet there will be no return to war.”
The cease-fire agreement came after months of talks brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States and came into effect on the occasion of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who said “as long as Will have to pay.” The hostages were released before he took office.
Biden described the Gaza ceasefire as ‘one of the most difficult negotiations’ he has been a part of.
US President Joe Biden has made remarks on the first day of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement.
“The deal that I pushed for last May … has finally come to fruition,” Biden said. He added that a ceasefire has been implemented in Gaza and today we are seeing hostages being released.
US President Joe Biden said the Gaza ceasefire agreement was one of the “most difficult negotiations” he had ever been a part of.
“The road to this agreement has not been easy, it has been a long road,” he said. “But we have reached this point today because of the pressure put on Hamas by Israel, which is supported by the United States.
“Some have said that my policy of strong support for Israel … risks dragging the United States into a wider war in the region. I have listened to those voices … but I have concluded that the course I was on was Abandonment would not lead to the ceasefire that we see today, but it would lead to a wider war in the region that many feared.
Biden said the region had “transformed”, as Hamas’ leadership had been eliminated and Hezbollah had been “significantly weakened on the battlefield”.
He added that “Israel’s campaign was extremely successful, to the extent that by the end of November, the United States had brokered a ceasefire in Lebanon … Today there is a new president and prime minister running the show for Hezbollah.” supports an independent Lebanon”. .
He continued, “Four more women will be released in seven days, followed by the release of three additional hostages every seven days, including at least two American citizens in this first phase. “
Biden added that on the 16th day of the ceasefire, negotiations would begin on the second phase of the agreement, which would include a permanent cessation of hostilities and the release of captured Israeli soldiers.
“Today alone, we expect several hundred trucks to enter the Gaza Strip as I speak,” Biden added.
“After so much suffering, destruction and loss of life, the guns have fallen silent in Gaza,” the president said, highlighting that actors including the UN Security Council had “overwhelmingly endorsed” the deal.
Gaza ceasefire brings ‘much-needed hope’: UN migration agency
The UN migration agency said the cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza brought “much-needed hope” as fighting began to ease after months of conflict, Anadolu reported.
“The ceasefire in Gaza brings much-needed hope, giving families the opportunity to reunite and rebuild shattered lives,” International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Amy Pope said on X.
He said the scale of humanitarian needs in Gaza was “staggering” and called for “immediate, united” efforts and massive cooperation at all levels.
Trump aide: Hamas will never rule Gaza
There is no detailed plan for governing Gaza after the war, much less rebuilding it. Any return of Hamas to Gaza would test Israel’s commitment to a cease-fire, which has said it will resume fighting until the militant group, which has run the enclave since 2007, is completely eliminated. It is not done.
Hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir resigned from the cabinet on Sunday over the ceasefire, although his party has said it will not seek to topple Netanyahu’s government. The other most prominent hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smutrich, remained in government but said he would step down if the war ended without destroying Hamas completely.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser nominee, said the US would support Israel “in whatever it has to do” if Hamas pulls out of the deal.
Hamas will never rule Gaza. This is completely unacceptable.”
The streets of Gaza City, scattered north of the territory, were already bustling with groups of people waving Palestinian flags and filming the scene on their cellphones. Several vehicles loaded with household goods drove down the road strewn with rubble and debris.
Ahmed Abu Iham, a 40-year-old Gaza City resident who is taking refuge with his family in Khan Yunis, said that although the ceasefire had saved lives, the scale of the loss of life and destruction made him celebrate. Not given time.
“We are in pain, deep pain and this is the time to hug each other and cry,” he said.
Long queues of trucks carrying fuel and relief supplies formed at the border crossings hours before the ceasefire came into force. The World Food Program said they began crossing on Sunday morning.
The deal will allow 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza every day during the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 fuel trucks. Half of the 600 aid trucks will be delivered to northern Gaza, where experts warn famine is imminent.
The war between Israel and Hamas began when the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks that have turned the Gaza Strip into a wasteland, according to medical officials in the enclave. Almost the entire enclave’s population of 2.3 million is homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also been killed.
Hamas says Israeli ceasefire violations could put the hostages at risk.
Reuters reports that Hamas’s armed wing has said the group will abide by a cease-fire agreement that has come into effect in Gaza, but warned that any possible violation by Israel would jeopardize that process. will happen and the lives of the hostages will be in danger.
In a video speech, al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeidah urged mediators to force Israel to sign a cease-fire agreement.
