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21-01-2025
GAZA STRIP: After 15 months of war that began with a brutal attack on Israel by Hamas and ended with much of the Gaza Strip levelled by Israel, a ceasefire came into effect on Sunday that saw three women hostages released from Gaza and 90 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails in return.
For two tense hours on Sunday morning, the ceasefire looked as though it might falter from the very outset. Hamas failed to provide the names of the three hostages it planned to release, prompting Israel to postpone the ceasefire and continue its air strikes on Gaza.
In what should have been the first hours of peace, from 08:30 local time (06:30 GMT), at least 19 Palestinians were killed by the strikes and 36 more were wounded, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had struck “a number of terror targets”.
The three hostages’ names were eventually sent by Hamas to Israel, via an intermediary, and Israeli military action in Gaza ceased for the first time since a brief, week-long ceasefire and hostage exchange back in November 2023.
At 11:19, Majed al-Ansari, the spokesman for the foreign ministry of Qatar, which has helped broker the ceasefire deal, wrote on X that the final obstacles had been cleared “and thus the ceasefire has begun”.
Six hours later, three Israeli hostages Romi Gonen, 24, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Emily Damari, 28, who is a dual British citizen were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza and then to the Israeli military. TV coverage showed chaotic scenes in Gaza City’s Saraya Square as crowds massed around the vehicle carrying the hostages and Hamas fighters struggled to push the people back.
There was a brief glimpse of the three women as they were taken from the van, amid the surging crowds. From the handover point in Gaza they were driven by the IDF to the nearby Re’im military base in southern Israel to be met by their mothers.
Extensive planning by the IDF had gone into the delicate handover, with military medics and psychologists readied for the first stages of the process at a reception centre designed to ease the hostages’ transition.
From Re’im, they were transferred by helicopter to the Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv to be reunited with their wider families and receive further medical attention. Two of the three reportedly suffered gunshot wounds in the attack on 7 October 2023, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
The release was the first of several due to take place over the next six weeks if the ceasefire holds until a total of 33 hostages have been returned and about 1,900 Palestinians have been freed in exchange. Ninety-seven hostages are still in captivity, Israeli authorities said, though dozens of those are presumed dead.
In Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 46,900 people have been killed during Israel’s offensive and the majority of the strip’s pre-war population of 2.3 million has been displaced, many civilians yearning for home learned over the weekend that their long wait would continue.
The IDF, which should withdraw its troops from populated areas during the first phase of the deal, warned civilians on Sunday not to approach the buffer zone it had created along Gaza’s borders or the military zone in central Gaza, known as the Netzarim corridor, which cuts the north of the territory from the south.
It was expected to be a week before some displaced people in the south can cross the corridor and move back to their homes in the north.
For civilians who have spent 15 months in desperate conditions in tents and makeshift shelters in Gaza, suffering from malnutrition and disease. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
