First three Israeli hostages returned to Israel

After a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip came into effect on Sunday, January 19, the Israeli army confirmed that a Red Cross convoy sent to Gaza had brought the first Israeli hostages liberated as part of the agreement back into Israeli territory.

Earlier in the day, Israel and Qatar had said the truce with Hamas began in Gaza at 10:15 am (9:15 GMT), nearly three hours after initially scheduled, following a last-minute delay on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement from Netanyahu’s office came after Hamas named the three female hostages it plans to release.

“A short while ago, accompanied by (Israeli military and security agency) forces, the released hostages crossed the border into Israeli territory. The released hostages are currently on their way to an initial reception point in southern Israel, where they will undergo an initial medical assessment,” the military said in a statement.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement that the hostages were “in our hands and on their way home.” “Our hearts are now with all the hostages still being held in inhuman conditions, and we are awaiting their return,” he added.

Moreover, a senior Hamas official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the Palestinian militant group had handed over three Israeli women hostages to the Red Cross, as agreed with Israel. “The three women hostages were officially handed over to the Red Cross at al-Saraya Square in the al-Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City,” the official said. “This occurred after a member of the Red Cross team met with them and ensured their well-being.”

The three women were due to be the first released in the ceasefire. Israeli media are reporting that the army has asked the mothers of the three hostages to come to a meeting point at a base next to the Gaza border.

An Israeli campaign group confirmed the names of the three women hostages due to be freed by Hamas. They are Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher. Damari and Steinbrecher were seized by militants during the October 7, 2023 attack from kibbutz Kfar Aza, while Gonen was abducted from the Nova festival, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum told AFP.

In a statement reacting to the three hostages’ return, Netanyahu said they had endured a horrific ordeal. “I know, we all know, they have been through hell. They are emerging from darkness into light, from bondage to freedom,” Netanyahu said during a phone call with an Israeli official who was briefing him on the release of the three female hostages.

Ceasefire delays

On Sunday morning, a statement from Netanyahu’s office, issued less than an hour before the truce had been set to start at 8:30 am (6:30 am GMT), said he had “instructed the (Israeli army) that the ceasefire (…) will not begin until Israel has received the list” of hostages to be freed. During the delay, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed eight people.

Israel eventually received the list of three hostages to be released by Hamas as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “Israel has received the list of hostages that are supposed to be released today,” the statement said, adding the “security establishment is currently checking the details.”

“According to the plan for the release of the hostages, the ceasefire for phase one in Gaza will come into effect at 11:15 (local time),” a statement from the prime minister’s office said. The truce was initially scheduled to begin at 7:30 am (6:30 GMT).

Hamas attributed the delay to “technical reasons,” as well as the “complexities of the field situation and the continued bombing,” ultimately publishing the names of three Israeli women to be released at around 9:30 am on Sunday. It had earlier said in a statement that it was committed to the ceasefire deal announced last week.

Months of talks

Mediator Qatar also confirmed the truce’s start and said some of the initial three hostages to be freed also hold foreign citizenship. “We confirm that the names of the three hostages who will be released today have been handed over to the Israeli side. They are three Israeli citizens, one of whom holds Romanian citizenship and the other British citizenship. Thus, the ceasefire has begun,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said in a statement.

The ceasefire is set to pause the fighting after 15 months of war and see the release of dozens of hostages held by the militants in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel’s Cabinet approved the deal early on Saturday.

Brokered by mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt in months of indirect talks between the warring sides, the ceasefire is the second truce achieved in the devastating conflict.

US President Joe Biden, whose administration has been heavily involved the mediation efforts, welcomed the ceasefire taking hold, saying that “after so much pain, death and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the truce, saying on X “it is imperative that this ceasefire removes the significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid.”

Pope Francis called, on Sunday, for the ceasefire in Gaza to be “immediately” respected as he thanked the mediators and urged a boost in humanitarian aid as well as the return of hostages. “I hope (…) it will be respected immediately by the parties,” Francis said at the end of the Angelus prayer, adding that he expressed “gratitude to the mediators” of the deal.

Regional instability and humanitarian aid

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned, on Sunday, that the Middle East would remain unstable after the deal. “If (Hamas) will stay in power, the regional instability it causes might continue,” Saar said at a press conference.

Speaking as the ceasefire went into effect in Gaza, Saar said Israel was committed to achieving all the goals of its war against Hamas, including dismantling its governmental and military capabilities. If the international community wanted a permanent ceasefire, he added, then it must include the dismantling of Hamas as a military power and ruling entity in Gaza. “Theoretically we can achieve it by an agreement, but that will be negotiated in the future during the first phase,” Saar said.

Later, French President Emmanuel Macron told Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas that a return to Palestinian governance was needed in Gaza after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Macron’s office said on Sunday.

In a phone conversation Saturday, Macron said this should “fully incorporate the Palestinian Authority” and that Gaza’s future should be aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state, while ensuring that “no massacre, like the one perpetrated on October 7 (2023), can ever be committed against the Israeli people again,” the Elysee said. It is “now essential to immediately work to respond to the Gazans’ vital urgent needs, to ensure the delivery of massive humanitarian aid, at the level of the residents’ needs,” the Elysee added.

Thousand of displaced Gazans return home

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday after the truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect, the United Nations said.

“First trucks of supplies started entering” minutes after the ceasefire took effect on Sunday morning, UN aid official Jonathan Whittall, interim chief of the UN’s OCHA aid agency for the Palestinian territories, said on X. “A massive effort has been underway over the past days from humanitarian partners to load and prepare to distribute a surge of aid across all of Gaza.”

On Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, whose country mediated the deal along with Qatar and the United States, said it provides for “the entry of 600 trucks per day to the Strip, including 50 trucks of fuel.”

Meanwhile, thousands of displaced Gazans carrying tents, clothes and personal belongings began heading to their homes after the long-awaited ceasefire took effect, after more than 15 months of war. AFP journalists saw Palestinians travelling by truck, donkey cart and on foot back to their homes through devastated swathes of Gaza, particularly in the northern parts of the Palestinian territory.