First three hostages released by Hamas: Israel
The mother of an Israeli hostage says the “nightmare in Gaza is over” after three young women were released by Hamas on Monday morning (AEDT) as a ceasefire took hold.
British-Israeli Emily Damari was reunited with her mother after 471 days in captivity.
The other hostages to be freed were Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher.
Mandy Damari released a statement thanking all those who fought for her daughter throughout the “horrendous ordeal”, and who “never stopped saying her name”.
“While Emily’s nightmare in Gaza is over, for too many other families the impossible wait continues,” she said.
“Every last hostage must be released, and humanitarian aid must be provided to the hostages who are still waiting to come home.”
Israel’s Defence Forces shared photos of the three women in their mothers’ arms after 15 months held in captivity.
In an image shared on social media, Damari appears to be missing two fingers from a gunshot wound she suffered during the Hamas raid on Israel on October 7, 2023.
She holds her bandaged hand up to the camera while smiling alongside her mother.
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Damari, 28, was abducted by Hamas from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The IDF says terrorists shot and killed her dog and dragged her into Gaza.
Romi Gonen, 24, was dancing with friends at the Nova Music Festival when Hamas terrorists invaded.
Veterinary nurse Doron Steinbrecher, 31, was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, while still in her pajamas.
“We cannot imagine the horrors these three young women have endured in 15 months of Hamas captivity,” said IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari.
“Today, we salute and embrace them and their families as they reunite after so long.”
Meanwhile, Palestinians poured into the streets to celebrate and return to the rubble of their bombed-out homes as fighting was halted in the Gaza Strip.
In Tel Aviv, thousands of Israelis cheered, embraced or wept in a square outside the defence headquarters as they watched live video on a giant screen showing three female hostages exiting a vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas men.
The hostages got into vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross as the crowd of fighters chanted the name of the armed wing of Hamas.
Soon after, the Israeli military said it was receiving the women, who were in good health.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, buses awaited the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention. Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for the hostages included 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 final Israeli attack killed 13 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel blamed Hamas for being late to deliver the names of hostages it would free, and said it had struck terrorists. Hamas said the hold-up in providing the list was a technical glitch.
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The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent to the Gaza Strip and 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still held to be freed in the six-week first phase in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israeli media reported that the army had asked the mothers of the three hostages to come to a meeting point at a base next to the Gaza Strip border.
As the ceasefire took hold, Palestinians burst into the streets – some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives.
“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza city who has sheltered in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for more than a year, told Reuters via a chat app.
In the north of the territory, the scene of some of the most intense Israeli air strikes and battles with the militants, people picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal.
Armed Hamas fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting.
Hamas policemen, dressed in blue police uniforms, deployed in some areas after months of trying to keep out of sight to avoid Israeli strikes.
People who had gathered to cheer the fighters chanted “Greetings to al-Qassam Brigades” – the armed wing of Hamas.
“All the resistance factions are staying in spite of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” one fighter told Reuters.
“This is a ceasefire, a full and comprehensive one, God willing, and there will be no return to war in spite of him.”
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.
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 Program said it began to cross on Sunday morning.
Under the deal, 600 truckloads of aid will be allowed into the Gaza Strip every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel.
Half of the 600 aid trucks will go to the enclave’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.
The war between Israel and Hamas began after the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks that reduced the Gaza Strip to a wasteland, according to medical officials in the enclave.
About 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.
– with AP/AAP
