Three freed hostages arrive in Israel as ceasefire with Hamas holds: NPR

TEL AVIV, Israel — Three Israeli women have been released as part of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel after Hamas-led Palestinian militants held them hostage in Gaza for 471 days.

Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher entered Israel aboard a military transport after being driven out of Gaza City in a Red Cross vehicle on Sunday, Israel said. Hamas fighters stood on the roof of the car they were in, surrounded by a crowd of Palestinians trying to get a look at the hostages, against a backdrop of a cityscape of war-torn buildings.

The Red Cross handed over the women to Israeli forces. As night fell, they crossed the border in a military convoy to a reception center set up for hostages who will be released in the coming weeks. Israel said the women were reunited with their mother there.

Israel said doctors and psychologists were also on hand to give the women an initial medical assessment, before being transferred to a hospital near Tel Aviv, for further treatment and to see the rest of their families.

Under the ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas in Qatar last week, Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages over the next six weeks, while Israel agreed to release some 1,900 Palestinians held in prisons Israelis. The deal was reached with the help of mediators from several countries and including representatives from the incoming and outgoing U.S. administrations.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the government was committed to returning the remaining 94 hostages, most of whom were captured during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Jerusalem. Israel, and many of whom Israel says are no longer believed to be alive.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel must now release 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israeli authorities have released a list of names of Palestinians detained after the October 7, 2023 attack, including Khalida Jarrar, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who has been in and out of Israeli prisons, and Abla Sa’adat, the president of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. wife of PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat.

In the West Bank, hundreds of people gathered in a roundabout on the outskirts of Ramallah in anticipation of their release. There was a festive atmosphere: families bundled up in winter coats, sellers of candy and coffee, bright balloons and cotton candy. Many waved Palestinian flags or wore kaffiyehs, and some held up photos of their loved ones being freed, holding them high in the air. Traffic backed up into the street, drivers honking or clapping from their windows.

In Charleston, South Carolina, President Biden spoke Sunday about the many rounds of often tense negotiations that resulted in the ceasefire agreement.

“The deal I first proposed last May for the Middle East has finally borne fruit,” he said, adding that hundreds of trucks were entering the Gaza Strip “as I speak,” carrying aid to the people there. “Today the guns in Gaza have fallen silent,” he said.

He said negotiations on the deal took a long time and “it was one of the most difficult negotiations I’ve been involved in.”

Biden also defended broader U.S. support for Israel under his administration, saying the United States pursued an “effective, principled policy” that led to the ceasefire agreement and helped to weaken Hamas’ allies in the region, notably Hezbollah and Iran.

The ceasefire was initially delayed by a few hours

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect at 11:15 a.m. local time (4:15 a.m. ET), approximately three hours after the originally scheduled cessation of hostilities. It was supposed to come into effect at 8:30 a.m., but the Israeli prime minister insisted that Israel did not consider the terms of the agreement valid and enforceable until Hamas handed over a list of hostage names who will be released on Sunday. .

Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas was supposed to hand them over on Saturday. The group eventually managed to do so and the ceasefire appeared to hold throughout the day.

Gonen, 24, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival as part of the Hamas attack on October 7; Damari, 28, a British-Israeli citizen, was kidnapped the same day by militants attacking Kfar Aza, a small Israeli community – known as a kibbutz – near Gaza; and Steinbrecher, 31, was also taken to Kfar Aza.

According to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Gonen “loves to dance, travel and enjoy life. Her friends and family describe her as energetic, funny, family-oriented and full of life.”

Damari’s friends describe her as “beloved and popular, a friend to everyone.” Emily loves barbecues, karaoke nights and loves hats,” according to the same statement. She was kidnapped along with her friends Gali and Ziv Berman, still in captivity.

Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse, according to the group’s release, and “has cared for animals since childhood, when she helped at the school’s petting zoo. She loves sports, especially running, and runs early in the morning around the kibbutz every Saturday”. The group said her family considered her a devoted aunt to her nephews.

All morning, surveillance drones flew over Gaza and the Israeli army reported strikes on the territory. NPR confirmed that a jeep belonging to the Al Qassem Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, was hit.

Hamas-controlled Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said Israeli attacks killed 19 people in various parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning.

Gaza health authorities said a total of 46,913 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and close combat between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants during that war. The Israeli military says 405 soldiers were killed during the war, in addition to the approximately 1,200 people killed in Israel on October 7, 2023.

On Sunday, the Israeli military also said it had carried out a special operation alongside the country’s domestic intelligence services, which resulted in the recovery of the body of infantryman Oron Shaul. He was killed during clashes with Hamas in 2014.

Hamas militants still hold 94 hostages in Gaza. Most of them were captured on October 7, 2023, but others were taken hostage over the previous decade, and a significant number are no longer alive.

In Jerusalem, the far-right Otzma Yehudit party issued a statement saying its leader, former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, was following through on his threat to leave Netanyahu’s governing coalition and would take the ministers of his party with him. The statement called the ceasefire agreement a “victory for terrorism.”

NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf contributed reporting from the West Bank.