Gaza ceasefire begins with release of three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners | Israel-Gaza war

Israel and Hamas have begun a long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza with the release of three Israeli female hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, in the first tentative steps to end 15 months of brutal war that has claimed almost 47,000 Palestinian lives in the coastal strip.

As the fighting ceased, hundreds of aid trucks queued to enter Gaza to deliver supplies to its 2.3 million residents, some 90% of whom have been displaced by the conflict, many multiple times.

The halt in the fighting and the exchange of hostages for prisoners, while representing the first key hurdle in the complex ceasefire deal, was delayed for several hours amid a dispute between Israel and Hamas that underlined continuing concerns over the fragility of the agreement.

During the delay at least 13 Palestinians were reported killed during a blitz of continuing Israeli strikes.

The ceasefire came into force a day before the inauguration of the incoming US president, Donald Trump, who had demanded an end to the fighting in Gaza as Hamas released the women to the Red Cross in a crowded square in central Gaza City – including the joint UK-Israeli citizen Emily Damari.

Damari was released with Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, who were all violently abducted on 7 October 2023 during Hamas’s surprise assault on southern Israeli communities bordering Gaza.

In images shared by her family after her release, Damari, who lost two fingers after being shot during her abduction, is seen smiling as she hugs her mother and talks to family members by phone.

As the Israeli hostages were released, Red Cross officials were working in Israel’s Ofer prison to process the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In Gaza, thousands of Palestinians burst into the streets as the ceasefire began as others set off on foot even before the ceasefire officially took hold to visit homes from which they had been displaced.

Welcoming the truce on his final full day in office, the US president, Joe Biden, said: “After so much pain, death and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent,” adding it now fell to the new Trump administration to implement the rest of the deal.

The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, described the release as “wonderful and long overdue”.

For his part the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described “an incredibly moving day”, adding: “I know, we all know, that they went through hell, they are going from darkness to light, they are truly exiting slavery for freedom.”

Sunday’s exchange of hostages for prisoners was preceded by a massively scaled up effort to deliver aid to Gaza as several hundred aid delivery trucks began arriving at the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

According to the UN aid official Jonathan Whittall, the interim chief of the UN’s OCHA aid agency for the Palestinian territories, the first trucks began entering Gaza within minutes of the ceasefire beginning.

“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,” Whittall said in a post on X.

The halt to the violence, which has claimed almost 47,000 Palestinian lives, came almost three hours behind schedule after Israel said that Hamas had failed to release the names of the hostages it would be releasing on Sunday, amid widespread distrust on both sides.

Underlining those concerns, Hamas called on international mediators to ensure Israel’s compliance with the deal, saying any violations could endanger the process.

Israel continued to strike Gaza up until the ceasefire finally came into effect at 11.15am local time (9.15am GMT), when Hamas posted the names of the three hostages on its social media channels. The challenges facing the complex, phased agreement were starkly apparent.

Hamas had blamed the almost three hours-long delay in starting the ceasefire on issues involved handing over the names of the three women to be released on “technical field reasons”.

“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” said Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City, who has been sheltering in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for more than a year.

The hostage-for-prisoner releases took place as Netanyahu faced increasing political headwinds over the deal. The far-right party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir quit his coalition in protest, and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, was also threatening to bring down the government.

Ben-Gvir said cabinet ministers from his party submitted their resignations from the government on Sunday in opposition to the ceasefire.

The departure of the Jewish Power party, while weakening Netanyahu’s coalition, will not affect the ceasefire, whose terms would remain in force even if Netanyahu’s government collapses.

The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire should mean a total of 33 hostages returning from Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees released.

The deal also calls for Israeli forces to pull back into a buffer zone inside Gaza, and many displaced Palestinians should be able to return home.

Far more complicated, however, are likely to be negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire, which are due to begin in just over two weeks. Major questions remain, including whether the war will resume after the six-week first phase and how the rest of the nearly 100 hostages in Gaza will be freed.

Despite the delay, the day had begun with Israeli forces starting to withdraw from areas in the Gazan city of Rafah to the Philadelphi corridor along the border between Egypt and Gaza.

The three-stage ceasefire agreement followed months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and came just before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president on Monday.

During the first phase the Israeli army will pull back from some of its positions in Gaza, and Palestinians displaced from areas in northern Gaza will be allowed to return.

Biden’s team worked closely with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to push the deal over the line.

As his inauguration approached, Trump had repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released.

But what will come next in Gaza remains unclear, in the absence of a comprehensive agreement on the postwar future of the territory, which will require billions of dollars and years of work to rebuild.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages.