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First Israeli hostages freed as Gaza truce begins

The first three Israeli hostages were released Sunday under a long-awaited Gaza truce aimed at ending more than 15 months of war that has ravaged the Palestinian territory.As the ceasefire took effect in the morning, thousands of displaced, war-weary Palestinians set off across the devastated Gaza Strip to return home.In the northern area of Jabalia, hundreds streamed down a sandy path, heading back to an apocalyptic landscape piled with rubble and destroyed buildings.”We are finally in our home. There is no home left, just rubble, but it’s our home,” said Rana Mohsen, 43, back in Jabalia.An initial 42-day truce brokered by Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators is meant to enable a surge of sorely needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, as Israeli hostages are to be released in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.The first three hostages, all women, were reunited with their mothers shortly after being taken back to Israel by security forces.Hamas fighters had handed over the trio — Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher — to Red Cross officials in a bustling square in Gaza City surrounded by a sea of people including gunmen.”After 471 days Emily is finally home,” said her mother Mandy Damari, but “for too many other families the impossible wait continues”.In central Tel Aviv, there was elation among the crowd who had waited for hours in a plaza dubbed “Hostage Square”.The Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group hailed their return as “a beacon of light”, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had emerged “from darkness”.Dozens of Palestinian prisoners are due to be released by Israel in exchange later on Sunday.A total of 33 Israeli hostages, 31 of whom were taken by militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, are due be returned from Gaza during the initial truce in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians.The next hostage-prisoner swap would take place on Saturday, a senior Hamas official told AFP.- ‘Nothing left’ -Minutes after the truce began, the United Nations said the first trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid had entered the Palestinian territory.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the truce, saying “it is imperative that this ceasefire removes the significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid”.The truce is intended to pave the way for a permanent end to the war, but a second phase has yet to be finalised.It came into effect nearly three hours later than scheduled. During the delay, Israel’s military said it was continuing operations, with the territory’s civil defence agency reporting 19 people killed and 25 wounded in bombardments.Thousands of Palestinians carrying tents, clothes and their personal belongings were seen going home on Sunday, after the war that displaced the vast majority of Gazans, in many cases more than once.Returning Jabalia resident Walid Abu Jiab said he had found “massive, unprecedented destruction”, with “nothing left” in Gaza’s war-battered north, which has seen intense violence over the past months.In the southern city of Rafah, Ahmad al-Balawi said that “as soon as I returned… I felt a shock.””Entire areas have been completely wiped out”, he told AFP, describing “decomposing bodies, rubble, and destruction everywhere”.Aid workers say northern Gaza was particularly hard-hit, lacking all essentials including food, shelter and water.The UN’s OCHA humanitarian agency said the first trucks started entering following the truce.An Egyptian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “260 trucks of aid and 16 of fuel” entered on Sunday. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had said 600 trucks a day would cross into Gaza.The World Health Organization said it was ready to pour much-needed aid into Gaza but that it would need “systematic access” across the territory to do so.Warning the “health challenges ahead are immense”, the Geneva-based agency estimated the cost of rebuilding Gaza’s battered health system in the years to come at “billions in investment”.”Only half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, nearly all hospitals are damaged or partly destroyed, and just 38 percent of primary health care centres are functional,” the WHO said.- ‘Commitment’ to truce -On the eve of the ceasefire, Netanyahu called the first phase a “temporary ceasefire” and said Israel had US support to return to the war if necessary.Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said its adherence to the truce would be “contingent on the enemy’s commitment”.US President Joe Biden, whose administration has been involved in months of mediation efforts, welcomed the ceasefire taking hold on Sunday, saying that “after so much pain, death and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent”.The war’s only previous truce, for one week in November 2023, also saw the release of hostages held by militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Hamas’s October 7 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Of the 251 people taken hostage, 91 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The truce took effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as president of the United States.Trump, who claimed credit for the ceasefire deal, told US network NBC on Saturday that he had told Netanyahu the war “has to end”.”We want it to end, but to keep doing what has to be done,” he said.Under the deal, Israeli forces will withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences”, Qatar’s prime minister said in announcing the deal.burs-ami/dv

Emily Damari: the British hostage who loves Spurs

Emily Damari, 28, is a British-Israeli dual national who was one of the three women released on Sunday under a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.”After 471 days Emily is finally home,” said her mother, Mandy Damari, who has campaigned tirelessly for her release since she was kidnapped by Hamas militants in October 2023.Damari was the last British hostage being held in the Gaza Strip. Some of the other hostages however have links to the UK.”I want to thank everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal, and who never stopped saying her name,” her mother said.”While Emily’s nightmare in Gaza is over, for too many other families the impossible wait continues,” she added.Damari was born in Israel after her English mother, Mandy, moved there in her 20s. Her father is Israeli.She is a fan of pop superstar Ed Sheeran and Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur, whose fans have often chanted her name during matches since she was captured.Damari was kidnapped in southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023 during its unprecedented attack that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, triggering the devastating conflict between Israel and the militant Palestinians in the Gaza.Israel’s ensuing campaign to eradicate the militants has destroyed much of Gaza, killing more than 46,900 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.- ‘Humour and chutzpah’ -Damari was at home in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near Israel’s southern border with Gaza, where she grew up, when Hamas gunmen stormed her home, injuring her hands and legs during the attack.Her dog Choocha was killed with a gunshot to the neck, said her mother, Mandy Damari.Mandy Damari relentlessly lobbied Israeli and UK leaders for her daughter’s return.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Emily Damari’s release, alongside two other Israeli women, was “wonderful and long-overdue news after months of agony for them and their families.”I wish them all the very best as they begin the road to recovery after the intolerable trauma they have experienced.”In December, Damari said she was “terrified” her daughter and other female hostages were exposed to “the constant threat of sexual assault” while in captivity.She has described Emily as “beautiful” and “charismatic” and boasting a “cheeky smile”.In a recorded message marking the attack’s first anniversary last October, Damari said her daughter had a mixed sense of classic British humour and “Israeli chutzpah”.”I always say that ‘I love her to the moon and back’. I need her back with me now, alive, before it is too late for her,” she said.- ‘One of our own’ -Mandy Damari added that Emily was a fan of singers Adele and Ed Sheeran.Emily would go to watch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium whenever she was in the UK visiting family, she added.”She’s one of our own, she’s one of our own, Emily Damari, bring her home,” Spurs fans have sung from the terraces.They have also handed out flyers with an image of Emily, with her long, curly dark hair, wearing a Spurs scarf, and released hundreds of yellow balloons during a game to raise awareness of her plight.Mandy Damari had said in October she feared Emily had been forgotten.And she revealed how hostages freed in 2023 had told her about Emily’s “bravery and courage and even her laughter and the way she helped hold everyone together even in the worst times”.

Chaotic crowds, gunmen surround Gaza hostage handover

Chaotic scenes enveloped the three hostages from Israel who were handed over to the Red Cross Sunday by masked Hamas militants wearing green headbands in a packed Gaza City square.A dense crowd of Palestinians had gathered to watch the moment, the first release of hostages seized on October 7, 2023, under the new ceasefire that came into effect on Sunday.Hamas fighters struggled to hold the crowds back from the convoy of Red Cross SUVs that had arrived at Saraya Square in the west of Gaza City to collect them.Many of those in the crowd chanted “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest” in Arabic.An AFP journalist on-site said fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement initially tried to keep the public away from the ICRC cars.But when another convoy of white vehicles arrived in the square carrying the three women hostages to be handed over, the crowd of several thousand surged forward to surround them. APFTV footage showed armed and balaclava-wearing Palestinian fighters stationed around the van containing the three women, as others stood on top of it.The three women, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, were the first to be released under the ceasefire agreement agreed this week between Israel and Hamas.International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff wearing red vests briefly exchanged words with Hamas militants in the group’s distinctive green headbands.”Dozens of armed members of the al-Qassam Brigades participated in the operation,” a Hamas official told AFP, referring to the group’s armed wing.Around them a vast crowd pulsed, occasionally threatening to overwhelm the fighters protecting the convoy, who had to force people back.The crowd waved Palestinian and Hamas flags while cheering and whistling. Some clung from the top of large advertising billboards to catch a glimpse of the hostage handover taking place below.One young man perched on another’s shoulders began chanting in tribute to Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the October 7 events, who was killed by Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza.Saraya Square, a large plaza built in the 1930s, is one of Gaza’s main gathering places and known for its proximity to Hamas government administrative buildings.At the crucial moment, the three young women left a white van through sliding doors and headed to the Red Cross vehicles that would take them to Israeli forces in the territory.Long after they had gone, crowds continued to celebrate in front of buildings damaged in the war as the first day of the ceasefire continued to hold.

Joy in Israel at hostage release but fears for those still held

The crowds in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square” cheered and whooped with joy late Sunday at the news that the first three hostages freed under the Gaza ceasefire deal had returned to Israel.There was elation among those who had waited for hours in the plaza in the centre of Israel’s commercial hub opposite Israeli military headquarters.The good news of the release of the three women was tempered by the knowledge that so many hostages still remained captives of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, however.A total of 33 Israeli hostages, 31 of whom taken by militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, will be returned from Gaza during an initial 42-day truce, in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians in Israeli custody.Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage on October 7, with 91 still in Gaza after Sunday’s release, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.AFPTV footage showed the hushed crowd watching 24-hour coverage on a large screen from mid-afternoon, waiting for any sign that the hostage release was really going ahead.Arms crossed and amid looks of concern, they watched the footage showing masked Hamas fighters in Gaza trying to control crowds of people who had gathered to see the three hostages being handed over to the Red Cross.At the first glimpse of the hostages in the back of a car in Gaza, surrounded by Hamas fighters, the Israeli onlookers in Tel Aviv burst into a brief moment of applause and cheering before falling silent again.Now they looked on, smiling and filming the moment, finally allowing themselves to believe that hostages were finally coming home after so much false hope.One young woman in the crowd wept openly as next to her a jubilant moustachioed man bounced up and down with excitement.More cheering followed when it was confirmed by Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari that the three women — Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher — were back in Israel and finally free after 471 days as captives in Gaza.A video later released by the Israeli military showed families of the three screaming, jumping for joy and crying as they watched their relatives returning home.In Jerusalem, President Isaac Herzog had opted to head to the Old City’s Western Wall to pray for the three. The ancient retaining wall stands beneath the holiest place in Judaism, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.The Hostages and Families Forum said: “Their return today represents a beacon of light in the darkness, a moment of hope and triumph of the human spirit. For their families and for all of us, this is a moment that will be forever etched in our memory.””Their return reminds us of our profound responsibility to continue working towards the release of everyone — until the last hostage returns home.”Amid the jubilation in Israel, a large digital clock beside the main stage in Tel Aviv counts every second that hostages have been held in Gaza.It continues to tick for the 91 still captive in the Palestinian territory.

After celebrations, displaced Gazans return home to destruction

Columns of people hundreds strong were making their way home in northern Gaza on Sunday, flanked on both sides by countless buildings turned to rubble, as a ceasefire took effect in the Palestinian territory.In places, they crossed an ashen landscape, heaped with pulverised concrete and studded with the skeletons of ruined buildings.They walked towards the northern city of Jabalia in a haze of dust raised by the movement of hundreds of feet and vehicles over sandy soil on roads stripped of their paving.In parts where the pavement remained, it was covered by layers of dust and debris.”We came here at six in the morning to find massive, unprecedented destruction,” said Walid Abu Jiab, a displaced Gazan who returned to his home in Jabalia.”There is nothing left in the north worth living for,” he told AFP.On either side of the road, former apartment buildings lay collapsed after months of Israeli shelling and air strikes during a military operation focused intently on the north of the Palestinian territory.The Israeli military began an intensive campaign in northern Gaza including Jabalia in early October 2023, saying it aimed to keep Hamas fighters from regrouping there after another operation in the south.After initially surrounding Jabalia, the military urged civilians across northern areas to evacuate. Those who stayed endured some of the war’s most devastating airstrikes and a stringent aid blockade in Gaza.Rana Mohsen, who was displaced from Jabalia to Gaza city, said she didn’t wait for the official start of the ceasefire.”We’ve been waiting for this moment for 16 months,” said the 43-year-old mother of three.”My joy is indescribable. We are finally in our home. There is no home left, just rubble, but it’s our home. We are lucky because part of the roof is still intact”, she told AFP.”The extent of the destruction is unimaginable. Buildings and landmarks have completely disappeared, as if it were a ghost town or abandoned cities.”- ‘I’m going to Rafah’ -Despite the damage, Sunday gave way to scenes of joy and jubilation, despite the ceasefire being delayed by several hours.In the southern city of Khan Yunis, crowds gathered in the streets and cheered as armed men paraded in pick-ups, Kalashnikov assault rifles held aloft, firing into the air in celebration.Hundreds of people gathered at a junction playing drums, waving Palestinian flags and chanting.”This joy is more beautiful than the joy of Eid, and this is the most beautiful pleasure,” a man told AFP from the window of his car, which was packed with his family and all his belongings. “I’m going to Rafah,” he added excitedly, even as his car was forced to a complete stop by the mass of celebrating Palestinians.In Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, people began returning in droves before the ceasefire even went into effect, with Israel having delayed the implementation by nearly three hours, saying it had not received a list of hostages to be released by Hamas.Ahmad al-Balawi, a resident of Rafah, returned as soon as he could.”As soon as I returned to the city, I felt a shock”, he told AFP, describing “Decomposing bodies, rubble, and destruction everywhere.””Entire areas have been completely wiped out”, he said.The war in Gaza was sparked by the militant group’s surprise October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 46,913 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.- ‘We will rebuild’ -“The residents have returned to the city of Rafah, even though it is no longer a city. Thousands of citizens are on their way back,” said Muhammad al-Shaer, a displaced resident.Taking all their remaining belongings with them, residents moved by truck, donkey-drawn cart, bicycle and on foot towards Rafah, carrying everything from large water tanks to mattresses.In the central city of Nuseirat, jubilant children thronged the streets, and members of Hamas’s security forces patrolled armed and in uniform shortly before the ceasefire came into effect.In Gaza City, a convoy of bulldozers set to clearing the streets of rubble and rubbish accumulated during the last 15 months, in which public services were halted by the war. In the distance, celebratory gunshots echoed.Gaza City municipality spokesman Asem Alnabih said on X that the city would facilitate the return of its residents.”We are starting today to reopen the main roads in Gaza City, preparing for the return of our displaced citizens”, he wrote.Walid Abu Jalboa from Jabalia said he had begun to think of the future.”God willing, with our will, faith in God, and strength, we will rebuild and live.”

First post-ceasefire aid trucks enter Gaza: UN

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a long-awaited 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.”An Egyptian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “260 trucks of aid and 16 of fuel” moved into the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza and the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel before entering 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”.On Sunday, AFP journalists saw hundreds of trucks carrying aid at the Rafah border crossing and around El-Arish, 50 kilometres (31 miles) west.The vehicles were waiting to proceed to the Israeli crossings with Egypt at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana for screening before being allowed in to Gaza.Some trucks returned empty after offloading their cargo, and around a dozen ambulances were also seen driving out of the main Rafah gate.The Rafah crossing — previously a vital entry point for aid — has been closed since May, when Israeli forces seized it on the Palestinian side.Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Nebal Farsakh told AFP Sunday that “the Israeli authorities control the process of receiving aid”, adding that “the mechanisms for receiving these trucks and the crossing points through which they will enter remain unclear”.Humanitarian workers have warned of the monumental challenges that could impede aid operations, including the destruction of infrastructure that previously processed shipments.Sunday’s truce comes after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, the deadliest in Israeli history.It follows a deal brokered by the three international mediators after months of negotiations, and comes on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president.By December 1, nearly 69 percent of the Palestinian territory’s buildings had been destroyed or damaged in the conflict, according to the United Nations.Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once.The start of Sunday’s truce saw many of them begin heading to their home areas through an apocalyptic landscape piled with rubble and destroyed buildings.