Gaza ceasefire sets in motion release of 3 Israeli hostages

Palestinians burst into the streets to celebrate and return to the rubble of their bombed-out homes on Sunday after a ceasefire deal halted fighting in Gaza, and three female hostages freed by Hamas were reunited with their mothers inside Israel.

Armed Hamas fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting.

In the north of the territory, bombed into oblivion in the war's most intense fighting, people picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis in a square outside the defence headquarters watched a live broadcast from Gaza showing the hostage release on a giant screen.

The crowd cheered, embraced and wept as three female hostages could be seen getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas fighters.

Soon after, the Israeli military said Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari had been reunited with their mothers at a meeting point inside Israel, close to the kibbutz and nearby music festival where they had been abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, buses were awaiting the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention. Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for the hostages includes 69 women and 21 teenage boys.

The first phase of the truce in the 15-month-old war between Israel and Hamas took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip.

That last-minute Israeli blitz killed 13 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel blamed Hamas for being late to deliver the names of hostages it would free.

Hamas said the holdup in providing the list was a technical glitch.

US President Joe Biden on Sunday welcomed the ceasefire, saying the "region has been fundamentally transformed."

"After so much pain, death and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," the outgoing president said,

"Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," Biden said on his last full day in office.

"The road to this deal has been not easy at all, it was a long road," Biden said.

"But we've reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States."

The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to Gaza and 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still held there to go free over the six-week first phase in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings in the hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect. The World Food Programme said they began to cross on Sunday morning.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza's north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

For Hamas, the truce could provide an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding. Hamas policemen dressed in blue police uniform swiftly deployed in some areas.

The ceasefire agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and comes into effect on the eve of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who had said there would be "hell to pay" unless hostages were freed before he took office.

There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas to control in Gaza will test the commitment to the truce of Israel, which has said it will resume the war unless the group which has run the enclave since 2007 is fully dismantled.

Hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir quit the cabinet on Sunday 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, remained in the government for now but said he would quit if the war ends without Hamas completely destroyed.

Trump's national security adviser-designate, Mike Waltz, said that if Hamas reneges on the agreement, the United States will support Israel "in doing what it has to do."

"Hamas will never govern Gaza. That is completely unacceptable."

The streets in shattered Gaza City in the north of the territory 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.

Associated Press