After 15 months of collective grief and anxiety, three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold Sunday.
The skies above Gaza and Israel were silent for the first time in over a year, and Palestinians began returning to what was left of the homes they fled across the war-ravaged enclave, started to check on relatives left behind and, in many cases, to bury their dead. After months of tight Israeli restrictions, more than 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid rolled into the devastated territory.
The ceasefire that went into effect Sunday morning stirred modest hopes for ending the Israel-Hamas war.
But in Israel, the joy of seeing freed hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher reunited with their families was tempered by major questions over the fate of the nearly 100 others abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, still in captivity in Gaza.
Damari, Gonen and Steinbrecher were the first among 33 Israeli hostages who are meant to be released in the coming six weeks in a deal that includes a pause in fighting, the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and increased fuel and aid deliveries for Gaza.
What happens after the deal’s first phase of 42 days is uncertain. The agreement’s subsequent stages call for more releases of hostages and prisoners and a permanent end to the war.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was pressured by the outgoing Biden administration and incoming Trump administration to secure a deal before the president-elect’s inauguration Monday in Washington, has said he received assurances from Trump that Israel could continue fighting Hamas if necessary.
On Sunday, many Israelis stayed glued to TV screens all afternoon to glimpse the women being released through the windows of the Red Cross ambulance. Footage showed them thronged by thousands of jostling Palestinians, including Hamas gunmen wearing green headbands, as militants handed them over to the Red Cross on a packed street in Gaza City.
“An entire nation embraces you,” Netanyahu said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right lawmaker who resigned on Sunday from Netanyahu’s governing coalition over the ceasefire, said the nation was “happy and excited” for their release. (AP)
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