After long minutes of uncertainty, the first three Israeli hostages released during the truce between Israel and Hamas were handed over to the Red Cross on Sunday in the middle of an excited crowd in Gaza City and dozens of fighters hooded Hamas.
Late in the afternoon, a convoy of cars from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrived in Al-Rimal, a neighborhood in western Gaza. Very quickly, many residents, including many children, gathered around the vehicles. ICRC employees speak with men from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
When another convoy of white cars arrives, transporting the three Israeli hostages, the crowd of several thousand people rushes towards the vehicles, giving the impression of having become out of control. The three young Israeli women quickly move from a white van to a Red Cross 4×4. Hundreds of men and women take out their phones to film the scene.
We barely have time to make out their silhouettes when the doors close. Around the cars which finally start, there is a stampede. At the foot of buildings with their facades torn off, the crowd continued for a long time to show joy on this first day of implementation of a ceasefire agreement.
-One of the Israeli hostages during the hostage and prisoner exchange operation in Saraya Square, western Gaza City, January 19, 2025.
AFP
