Three Israeli hostages have been reunited with their families, while 90 Palestinian prisoners were released in return in a ceasefire deal that has put an end, for now, to 15 months of bitter war in Gaza.
Amid a chaotic crowd in Gaza, the Israeli hostages were handed by masked, armed gunmen to the Red Cross on Sunday, before being transferred to the Israeli military and then entering southern Israel.
All three were in a stable condition, Sheba Medical Center said, and authorities released footage of them fiercely hugging their families and sobbing.
“An entire nation embraces you,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian families welcomed the 90 prisoners freed by Israel early on Monday morning, with crowds gathering to celebrate with the first bus of detainees in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
All are from the occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem. The youngest is a 15-year-old boy from East Jerusalem. Two 17-year-olds, a boy and a girl, were also named.
Israel had detained them for what it said were offences related to Israel’s security, from throwing stones to more serious accusations like attempted murder.
One of the three hostages released by Hamas was 28-year-old British-Israeli Emily Damari, who was shot in the hand and taken to Gaza during the 7 October attack that sparked the war in 2023.
The other two hostages freed on Sunday were 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher, abducted from the same Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel as Ms Damari, and Romi Gonen, 24, who was taken from the Supernova music festival.
Emily Damari’s mother, Mandy Damari, thanked “everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal”.
Relief and grief in ravaged Gaza
In Gaza, Palestinians have been both celebrating the relief from the bombing and grieving the loss of loved ones and livelihoods.
Some started the trek back through the rubble to what is left of their bombed-out homes, hoping to pick up any pieces of their lives.
“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” said a woman from Gaza City, who had been sheltering in Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip, for over a year.