Israel on Monday released 90 Palestinian detainees a few hours after three Israeli hostages were freed by Hamas, as part of the ceasefire between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip devastated by more than 15 months of war.
• Also read: Ceasefire takes effect in Gaza almost three hours late
• Also read: Thousands of displaced Gazans return home on first day of ceasefire
The truce came into effect on Sunday at 9:15 a.m. GMT almost three hours late, Hamas having delayed providing the list of three Israeli hostages to be released the same day. The movement reported “complications on the ground” and “continued bombings”.
At the end of the afternoon, a Hamas leader declared to AFP that “the three hostages” had been “handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross” in Gaza City (north), then the Israeli army confirmed their arrival in Israel.
They are the Israeli-British Emily Damari (28 years old) and the Israeli-Romanian Doron Steinbrecher (31), captured on kibbutz Kfar Aza, as well as Romi Gonen (24), kidnapped at the Nova music festival , during the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023 in Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.
Under the terms of the agreement, dozens of Palestinian prisoners were to be released on Sunday in exchange for the three hostages.
Shortly after midnight on Monday, the Israel Prisons Authority said that “90 terrorists” had been “released” from the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank and a detention center in Jerusalem.
Hundreds of people welcomed the passage of buses carrying the prisoners on a road from Beitunia leading to Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, brandishing Palestinian flags and others of various Palestinian political movements, notably that of Hamas, a observed an AFP journalist on site.
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, thousands of displaced Palestinians took to the roads amid an apocalyptic landscape to return home.
“Destruction”
“We couldn’t even find the exact location of our houses” because of “the scale of the destruction,” lamented Maria Gad El Haq in Rafah (north), who is one of the 2.4 million of Palestinians, the majority of whom have been displaced by the war.
The entry into force of the agreement, which took place on the eve of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, fuels hopes of lasting peace in the Palestinian territory, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel reserved “the right to resume the war if necessary.”
Hamas’ military wing said the truce depended on Israel “compliance with commitments.”
Between the scheduled start of the truce and its effective entry into force, Israel carried out strikes in Gaza that killed eight Palestinians, according to local Civil Defense.
Announced on Wednesday by the mediators – Qatar, United States, Egypt – the agreement ultimately aims, according to Doha, to lead to a “definitive end” to the war.
Under its terms, hostilities must cease and 33 Israeli hostages must be released in an initial phase of six weeks.
-In return, Israeli authorities said they would release some 1,900 Palestinians within that time frame.
The truce agreement also specifies that 236 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment for having committed or participated in attacks or attacks and to be released as part of the exchange, will be exiled, mainly to Qatar or Turkey.
“Stable state”
The three young Israeli women released on Sunday “went through hell” after 471 days of captivity, Mr. Netanyahu reacted to their arrival in Israel.
Daniel Hagari, an army spokesman, said that “between three and four abducted women” would be “released every week.”
A senior Hamas official then told AFP that the next release would take place “next Saturday”.
The ex-hostages, who were reunited with their loved ones, were transferred to Sheba hospital, near Tel Aviv, which indicated that they were “in a stable condition”.
On “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv, thousands of people welcomed their return with tears, songs, applause and hugs.
«Obstacles»
A few minutes after the ceasefire came into force, which also provides for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the UN announced the arrival of the first aid trucks.
According to Egypt, the agreement provides for “the entry of 600 aid trucks per day”. According to an Egyptian official, “260 trucks of aid and 16 of fuel” had entered by the end of the day on Sunday.
“We are trying to reach a million people as quickly as possible,” Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, told AFP.
During the first phase of the truce, the modalities of the second will be negotiated, which should allow the release of the last hostages, before the last stage relating to the reconstruction of Gaza and the restitution of the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity.
According to Joe Biden, the first phase also includes an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas in Gaza.
The attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of 251 people kidnapped that day, 91 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 dead according to the Israeli army.
At least 46,913 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry deemed reliable by the UN.
Bombarded relentlessly by Israel for more than a year, the health system has collapsed in the small Palestinian territory. The World Health Organization warned Sunday that restoring it will be “a complex and difficult task.”
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