Three Israeli hostages were returned to Israel by Hamas and 90 Palestinian security prisoners were released by Israel as the ceasefire took effect at 11:15 a.m. – almost three hours later than planned.
At 5:07 p.m., Hamas had confirmed that 28-year-old Emily Damari, 23-year-old Romi Gonen, and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher had been released to the Red Cross in the vicinity of central Gaza.
By 5:38 p.m. the Red Cross had handed them over to IDF special forces, including the Shayetet 13 naval commandos.
At 5:53 p.m., the IDF had returned the three hostages to Israeli territory.
The deal will see 33 hostages released in the first 42-day phase in exchange for the release of security prisoners, humanitarian aid, and an IDF withdrawal to a security perimeter around Gaza around 700-1,100 meters from the Israeli border.
Israel will release 30 Palestinian detainees for every civilian hostage and 50 Palestinian detainees for every female soldier Hamas releases. Hostages expected to be released in the first phase are those who fall under the humanitarian category, such as women, children, the elderly, or the wounded.
“The Hostages Families Forum welcomes the exciting news that Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari are expected to be released later today. We await their safe return to Israel to be reunited with their families after 471 days in Hamas captivity,” the forum said.
Steinbrecher is an Israeli-Romanian dual national who turned 31 in captivity. Hamas abducted her from Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, where she was hiding under her bed. Her family has previously raised alarm bells with the Red Cross, concerned Hamas had not been providing her medication.
Damari, a British-Israeli, was abducted from her Kfar Aza apartment. Terrorists shot her hand and murdered her dog Chooka before taking her in her own car. She was also wounded by shrapnel.
Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival after being shot by the invading terrorists while on the phone with her mother. Her final words before being taken were, “They shot me, Mom, and I’m bleeding. Everyone in the car is bleeding.”
Gonen and Damari were held together for the length of their captivity.
'Angel of Nova'
Ben Shimoni, who has garnered the nickname the “Angel of Nova,” is thought to have returned to the site of the music festival to save Romi and other partygoers. Shimoni was murdered by terrorists after successfully saving nine people after driving back to the festival twice.
The ceasefire was supposed to go into effect at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday but was delayed until 11:15 a.m. when Hamas finally provided the list of hostages set for release.
During that time, the IDF killed a number of additional Hamas terrorists, including in a vehicle, The Jerusalem Post confirmed, with some reports saying some dozens of Hamas forces may have been killed during the delay period.
Company-level commanders of special forces handled the transfer of the hostages into Israeli custody and were the first to confirm the hostage’s identity finally, including that they were all alive and did not appear overtly physically wounded.
Initially, the IDF brought the hostages to makeshift Gaza border absorption centers, and they departed by helicopter for hospitals inside Israel after an initial shower, getting to eat some food, and an initial debriefing.
They met up with their families once they arrived at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the IDF on Sunday said that despite the release of around 80 arrested or convicted Palestinians into the West Bank (out of the 98 being released) as part of the ceasefire and hostage deal, it will make sure that Hamas must keep its head down in the area.
Further, the IDF said it has reinforcements relating to seven companies to deploy a much larger number of soldiers at key junctions and on many roads throughout the West Bank.
Moreover, the military said it has received special forces reinforcements, including from the Egoz and commando units, to go even more on the attack than usual against West Bank Palestinian terror in the near future.
Regarding the releases of the Palestinians themselves, they are being handled mostly at the Beitunya Checkpoint.
Still, the IDF said it recognized that some of those being released, especially younger Palestinians, had a high likelihood of returning to terror and that it would be keeping track of releasees.
The IDF noted that it has already killed three Palestinian terrorists who were released to the West Bank during the November 2023 hostage exchange in cases where they returned to terror.
Reports said that Gazans started to return to various areas of Gaza that they had come from, although until day 7 of the ceasefire, movement by Gazans is only allowed within the northern areas and within the southern areas, but crossing over will wait until the end of this week.
About 200 aid delivery trucks, including 20 carrying fuel, began arriving on Sunday at the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing ahead of entry into the Gaza Strip, two Egyptian sources told Reuters.
Aid trucks streaming into Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal were using the Kerem Shalom entry point pending completion of maintenance at the Rafah border crossing into southern Gaza from Egypt, sources said.
The Hamas prisoners office attributed a delay in announcing a list of the Palestinian prisoners to be freed on Sunday under the Gaza hostage ceasefire deal with Israel to “errors” in some names, adding that this would be addressed.
Hamas said the group would abide by a ceasefire agreement that came into force in Gaza on Sunday but that any possible Israeli violations would endanger the process and put the lives of hostages at risk.
In a video speech, al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaida urged mediators to compel Israel to commit to the ceasefire deal.
He also implied that 59 out of the 94 remaining hostages were alive.
Gazan residents felt elated about the truce.
“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months,” Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, said after the fighting stopped. “I feel alive again.”
In Tel Aviv, hundreds in a square outside the Defense Ministry headquarters watched a live broadcast from Gaza showing the hostage release on a giant screen. The crowd cheered, embraced, and wept as the three female hostages could be seen getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas fighters.
“Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent,” US President Joe Biden said on his last full day in office, welcoming a truce that had eluded US diplomacy for more than a year.
“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.”
Reuters contributed to this report.