The first three hostages released from Gaza arrived in Israel on Sunday for tearful reunions with families, hours after the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold following 15 months of war. Palestinians waited for the first release of prisoners held by Israel.
Footage showed 28-year-old Emily Damari, 24-year-old Romi Gonen and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher in a tense handover to the Red Cross on a Gaza City street. They were surrounded by a crowd of thousands, accompanied by masked, armed men wearing green Hamas headbands. The women were taken to Israeli forces and then into Israel, where their mothers were waiting.
The three women were in stable condition, Sheba Medical Center said, and authorities released footage of them reuniting with their families, hugging fiercely and sobbing. Israel’s military also released images showing Damari raising a bandaged hand in triumph. It said she lost two fingers in the attack that sparked the war.
In Tel Aviv, thousands of people who gathered to watch the news on large screens erupted in applause. For months, many had gathered in the square weekly to demand a ceasefire deal.
The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel killed some 1,200 people and left some 250 others captive. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half the dead.
___
Here’s the latest:
Trump’s national security adviser says US will back Israel if Hamas runs afoul of ceasefire deal
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser says the U.S. has assured Israel that if Hamas runs afoul of a Gaza ceasefire deal, “we will be with them.”
Michael Waltz said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that trust and confidence is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “felt comfortable pushing this through his government.”
He says the Trump administration will support Israel as it is “going to do what it has to do” to ensure Hamas never rules the Palestinian territory again.
First photos show hostages reuniting with their mothers
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military released the first photos of the hostages reuniting with their mothers at a reception center in southern Israel, before they were flown by helicopter to the hospital.
In the photos, the women embrace their mothers. Merav Leshem Gonen cradled her daughter Romi, beaming. Emily Damari embraced her mother, and in a video call with her brother, showed off a hand where she lost two fingers on Oct. 7. Doron Steinbrecher and her mother Simona embraced in a fierce hug.
The hostages and their mothers have arrived at a hospital in central Israel, where they will reunite with the rest of their family and receive medical treatment. They are expected to stay in the hospital for a number of days. All of the hostages were able to walk under their own power, despite concerns about their conditions.
Outside of the hospital, hundreds of people danced and cheered to welcome the hostages back to Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to US credits Trump and degrading of Hamas for ceasefire deal
WASHINGTON — Israel’s ambassador to the United States credited President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, along with his country’s degrading of Hamas, for the ceasefire deal that took effect Sunday.
Ambassador Michael Herzog said Hamas realized they were on their own in their fight and “Trump came into the picture and said he wants a deal,” pushing them toward it.
On “Fox News Sunday,” he noted the “unprecedented cooperation” between President Joe Biden’s team and Trump’s envoys.
Going forward, he says he sees “a role for the U.S. and other regional actors to apply and create alternatives to Hamas and stabilize the situation.”
Starmer says release of a British-Israeli woman is ‘a wonderful news’
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the release of a British-Israeli woman along with two other hostages Sunday as “wonderful and long-overdue news.”
He also cautioned that the world must not forget about those still in captivity by Hamas militants.
Emily Damari, 28, who has dual British and Israeli nationality, was one of the three female hostages freed Sunday. Her mother, Mandy, released a statement of thanks for supporters “who never stopped saying her name.”
“After 471 days Emily is finally home,” her mother said.
Starmer said despite the news, Sunday “also represents another day of suffering for those who haven’t made it home yet.”
“While this ceasefire deal should be welcomed, we must not forget about those who remain in captivity under Hamas,” he said. “We must now see the remaining phases of the ceasefire deal implemented in full and on schedule, including the release of those remaining hostages and a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
Father of an Israeli-American hostage grateful to Trump for work on ceasefire
The father of an Israel-American held by Hamas says he’s grateful for the incoming Trump administration for its work on getting the ceasefire deal over the finish line.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, says the outgoing Biden administration “did extraordinary work” on the framework of the deal.
“However, it took a tweet, the subsequent statements from President-elect Trump to get this home,” the father said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “And what we ask of President Trump and his team is to keep their finger on this.”
President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, said Sunday that Sagui Dekel-Chen is one of the two Israeli-American hostages would will be released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement over the coming weeks.
Romanian prime minister welcomes the release of an Israeli-Romanian hostage
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu welcomed the release of the first three hostages from Gaza on Sunday, who included Israeli-Romanian Doron Steinbrecher, 31.
“Their courage to endure captivity in such difficult conditions is an inspiration to us all,” he said in a post on Facebook.
“We need the full implementation of the agreement to continue so that all hostages are safely released and we stand in solidarity with the families still awaiting the return of their loved ones.”
Biden’s Mideast adviser expects 800 trucks of aid into Gaza on Sunday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser says “we have a full ceasefire in effect” and expects 800 trucks of humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza on Sunday.
Brett McGurk helped hammer out a deal in Doha, Qatar, along with President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and other mediators from Qatar and Egypt.
He noted on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that two Israeli-American hostages will come out in the first phase of the deal over the coming weeks.
“We’ve been working seamlessly with the incoming team. I think this is a testament to President Biden and to President Trump allowing us to work together,” he said.
Relatives of hostages overcome with joy
TEL AVIV, Israel — They jumped and clapped, and cried out and wept. Israel’s military has released footage of relatives watching the three released hostages meeting military representatives after being released.
The military said the three women had reached the initial reception point in Israel to be reunited with their mothers. They would have an initial medical assessment and go to a hospital.
“This is an exciting day,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, and told the freed women that “an entire nation embraces you.”
AP drone footage shows a devastated landscape in southern Gaza
Drone footage by The Associated Press in the opening hours of the ceasefire in Gaza shows a gray and devastated landscape in the southern city of Khan Younis.
The footage of what had been densely populated neighborhoods shows roofs caved in, shattered buildings and massive support beams holding up nothing at all.
The images also show Palestinians moving on foot on some of the city’s streets as people begin to assess the damage without the threat of Israeli fire.
The United Nations has said much of Gaza’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
Biden says ‘the guns in Gaza have gone silent’
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden says “the guns in Gaza have gone silent” under a ceasefire deal he outlined in May.
Biden spoke during a visit to a church in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaking of the hostages that were being released under the ceasefire, Biden said he had just received a call saying the three were being released. Although he stressed that it was early and it wasn’t immediately clear whether they were out of Gaza, Biden said: “They appear to be in good health.”
Biden said it now falls on the Trump administration to help implement the deal.
“I was pleased to have our team speak as one voice in the final days. It was both necessary and effective and unprecedented,” Biden said.
“Success is going to require persistence and continuing support for our friends in the region, and the belief in diplomacy backed by deterrence,” the president said.
Palestinians in the West Bank gather for the expected release of 90 prisoners from Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Families and friends of some of the Palestinians prisoners set to be released from Israel in exchange for hostages in Gaza gathered in Ramallah as cars honked and people waved the Palestinian flag.
About 90 Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank and Jerusalem will be released Sunday after Hamas freed the three Israeli hostages. The Palestinians include 69 women.
Fadia Barghouti was arrested from Ramallah in April and spent three months in prison without being given a reason, she said. Tonight she hopes to see friends she had been detained with.
“I’m happy, because of the ceasefire people can live peacefully,” she said.
She said the war in Gaza is evidence that no one in the Middle East can live peacefully until Palestinians have their rights.
3 released hostages are with Israeli forces in Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel — Three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over to Israeli forces there in the first test of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The three hostages are Romi Gonen, 24, kidnapped from the Nova music festival, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Later on Sunday, Israel is expected to release around 90 Palestinian prisoners.
A gradual release of 33 captives over the next six weeks has been agreed on. In exchange, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained.
Israel says the first 3 hostages to be freed from Gaza are with the Red Cross
TEL AVIV, Israel — The first three hostages set to be released from Gaza were transferred to the Red Cross and were on their way toward Israeli forces, the Israeli military announced Sunday, hours after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold.
Israeli media, carrying live footage from Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV, showed the hostages walking between vehicles as their convoy moved through Gaza City, surrounded by a huge crowd, with many people holding up phones and filming.
The vehicles were accompanied by armed men who wore green Hamas headbands and struggled to guard the cars from an unruly crowd that swelled into the thousands.
Palestinian prisoners set for release include 69 women and youngest is 15
BEIRUT — The 90 Palestinian prisoners set to be released Sunday in exchange for three hostages held by Hamas include 69 women, according to a list provided to The Associated Press.
The youngest is Mahmoud Aliowat, 15.
The prisoners to be released include Khalida Jarrar, 62, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist faction with an armed group that has carried out attacks on Israelis. New York-based Human Rights Watch said her repeated arrests are part of Israel’s wider crackdown on non-violent political opposition.
Dalal Khaseeb, 53, the sister of former Hamas second-in-command Saleh Arouri, is also on the list, which was provided by Hamas. Arouri was killed in an Israeli strike in a southern Beirut suburb in January 2024.
Also listed for release is Abla Abdelrasoul, 68, the wife of detained PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat who killed an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001 and has been serving a 30-year sentence.
Head of Rafah municipality says the city is a disaster zone
CAIRO — The head of the Rafah municipality in Gaza has told journalists that it has become a “disaster city,” with massive destruction there.
Ahmed al-Sufi said Israel’s military has destroyed a large part of the infrastructure including water, electricity and road networks, in addition to thousands of homes and public facilities.
“Rafah faces a humanitarian tragedy,” he said, as Palestinians across the territory are beginning to discover the scope of the destruction in the first hours of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
First 3 hostages set to be released
TEL AVIV, Israel — Anticipation is growing as the first signs emerge of the handover of the first three hostages set to be released.
Hundreds of people have gathered in Tel Aviv in what has been called “Hostages Square” to watch the news on large screens. For months, thousands of Israelis have gathered weekly at the square to demand a deal to bring everyone home.
Israeli media are reporting that the army has asked the mothers of the three hostages to come to a meeting point at a base next to the Gaza border.
Macron says France will work on full implementation of the ceasefire
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron says France intends to work with other nations to ensure “the full implementation” of the Gaza ceasefire.
A statement Sunday from his office said Macron “is delighted that the Israeli Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement” and that “he warmly thanked the Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators who contributed to it.”
His office said Macron spoke Saturday by phone with the families of two French-Israeli hostages still in captivity, Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi.
The statement said their families “have been living for 15 months in an anguish that the entire French nation shares. … Ohad and Ofer are now both on the first list of hostages to be released.” Macron has said that the two are on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau expressed concerns about the hostages’ health.
“I don’t know in what condition they will return. We don’t know how many are alive or dead and, among the living, in what psychological state we’ll find them in. But the hostages will be progressively released. It’s a good thing,” he told French broadcaster BFMTV.
Trump’s national security adviser praises Gaza ceasefire
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for national security adviser says the Gaza ceasefire deal should be “celebrated.”
“We will see three women coming out alive,” Michael Waltz, Trump’s pick to be his national security, told CBS of the first hostages set to be released. “Had we not entered this, these people would have died.”
Waltz said the hostages held by Hamas have been captive longer than U.S. hostages held during the Iranian crisis in 1979, “but now we’re going to have a Reagan moment.”
That recalled those hostage being freed after 444 days when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981.
“We’re going to have President Trump being sworn-in as hostages are coming out alive,” Waltz said.
Mother of British-Israeli hostage says ‘I have more hope now’
LONDON — The mother of one of the three female hostages expected to be released Sunday said she was praying her daughter will return to Israel alive, adding, “I have more hope now than I’ve had in the last 15 months.”
Emily Damari, a 28-year-old British-Israeli national, was kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“It would be the most wonderful feeling in the world if she comes back, the most wonderful feeling. But I won’t believe it until I see and feel it for myself,” her mother Mandy said in a statement released on behalf of her family.
Emily Cohen, a family friend who has been representing the relatives, said: “These final few hours have been the most agonizing that you can imagine, after nearly 500 days of unending torment for Mandy and all the other families.”
Earlier Sunday Britain’s government said it stood ready to support Damari upon her release.
Israel reiterates it wants all hostages to return as part of the ceasefire
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told journalists that “both Trump and Biden have given full backing to Israel’s right to return to the fighting if it reaches the conclusion that the second stage of negotiations is ineffectual.”
Mencer adds, however, that Israel wants “all stages” of the phased ceasefire deal to come into effect. Negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase are to start just over two weeks into the first phase that began Sunday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in a separate statement reiterated that Israel won’t stop the war until everyone returns home. He added that “we will take care to maintain the buffer zones and respond forcefully to any violation and threat.” Israeli forces are withdrawing to buffer zones inside Gaza in the first phase.
Residents in bombed-out Rafah in southern Gaza return to find destruction
CAIRO — Residents n Gaza’s southern city of Rafah returned to find massive destruction following a ceasefire that took hold Sunday. Some found human remains in the rubble.
“It’s an indescribable scene. It’s like you see a Hollywood horror movie,” Mohamed Abu Taha told The Associated Press as he and his brother inspected the family home in Rafah’s Salam neighborhood. He described “flattened houses, human remains, skulls and other body parts, in the street and in the rubble.”
He shared footage of piles of rubble he said had been the family’s house.
Trump welcomes the impending release of 3 hostages from Gaza
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has welcomed the impending release of three hostages held by militants in Gaza as part of a ceasefire agreement with Israel that started Sunday.
“Hostages starting to come out today! Three wonderful young women will be first,” Trump wrote in a post on the social media platform Truth Social.
Pope expresses gratitude for Gaza ceasefire
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for the Gaza ceasefire and praised the role of mediators.
Francis thanked all those involved who worked to make the deal possible, praying that all the hostages will be able to return home and embrace again their loved ones.
The pontiff noted that he continues to pray that whatever has been agreed upon “will be respected.”
Francis also prayed that greatly-needed humanitarian aid will be able to arrive in Gaza as soon as possible, and that the international community will continue to help both sides as to best foster “dialogue, hope and peace.”
UN agency says food trucks entering Gaza
CAIRO — The U.N. World Food Program said trucks have started entering Gaza through two crossings after the ceasefire took hold Sunday.
In a post on X, WFP said the first trucks carried life-saving wheat flour and ready-to-eat food parcels. It said it aims to deliver food daily along humanitarian corridors that include Egypt, Jordan and Israel crossing points.
“This ceasefire is critical for the humanitarian response. Safety, and access must be ensured,” the agency said.
Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the ceasefire
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Celebrations erupted early Sunday across the Gaza Strip as people hoped for respite after 15 months of war that killed tens of thousands and destroyed large areas of the territory. Masked militants appeared at some of the celebrations, where the crowds chanted slogans in support of them, according to Associated Press reporters in Gaza.
Gaza’s Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, held a parade in Gaza City, where the rescuers waved a Palestinian flag alongside other revelers, according to AP footage. It also showed a small group of people carrying the flags of Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group after Hamas, which took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war.
The Hamas-run police began deploying in public after mostly lying low due to Israeli airstrikes. Gaza City residents said they had seen them operating in parts of the city, and the AP reporter in Khan Younis saw a small number out on the streets.
Palestinian residents began returning to their homes in parts of Gaza City early Sunday, even as tank shelling continued to the east, closer to the Israeli border, overnight. Families could be seen making their way back on foot, with their belongings loaded on donkey carts, residents said.
“The sound of shelling and explosions didn’t stop,” said Ahmed Matter, a Gaza City resident. He said he saw many families leaving their shelters and returning to their homes. “People are impatient. They want this madness to end,” he said.
Families of Israeli hostages worry about the next step
PARIS — At a gathering in Paris, relatives of Israeli hostages say the coming days and weeks remain fraught with worries for them despite Hamas promises to release some of the captives under the long-awaited ceasefire with Israel.
Moshe Emilio Lavi, the brother-in-law of hostage Omri Miran, said at the gathering Saturday night that he’s concerned about the health effects for those held for more than 450 days.
“You can imagine that hostages who were subject to torture, abuse, sexual violence, deprived of food, water, sanitation, sunlight for so long — everyone is a humanitarian case, which is why we as families reject the notion this is a humanitarian deal,” he said.
“The first phase is not. If it was, every hostage, including my brother-in-law, Omri, would return home tomorrow. So we are not optimistic.”
Olivier Jaoui, a relative of French-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon, said families have “many concerns because we don’t know who is alive, who is dead among the hostages and in particular, for us, Ofer Kalderon, our cousin.”
He added that “another concern, obviously, is in what state they will return.”
Comments