Gaza residents and Israelis dare to hope as ceasefire takes hold

Jerusalem: The sounds of celebration replaced those of explosions in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as a fragile ceasefire came into effect after 470 days of war, allowing some hostages to return home to Israel, Palestinians imprisoned in Israel to be released, and displaced Palestinians to search for what was left of their homes in Gaza.

Under the terms of the laboriously reached deal, fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas militants stopped at 11:15 am, raising hopes for a more lasting end to a war that has plunged the Middle East into fear and uncertainty.

The first hostages -- three women seized when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 -- were released shortly afterward, and, with the danger diminished, stepped-up aid deliveries began making their way in the opposite direction, crossing border checkpoints. Early Monday morning, the Israelis said they had released 90 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel.

Joyous Palestinians honked car horns and blasted music in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah, where children ran around in the streets. Israelis celebrated, too, as the hostages began returning, with anxious families anticipating the release of still more.

But underlying the relief was the knowledge that this phase of the ceasefire is to last just 42 days and free only some of the hostages, and that big diplomatic hurdles lie ahead if it is to be extended. Israel and Hamas reached the deal in part by putting off their most intractable disputes until a nebulous "second phase" that neither side is sure it will reach.

Almost as soon as the bombs stopped falling, masked gunmen and uniformed Hamas police officers came out of hiding and showed themselves on the streets of Gaza. The show of force was unmistakable, demonstrating that even after an overwhelming Israeli military campaign bent on destroying Hamas, the militant group remains the dominant Palestinian power in Gaza.

On Saturday night, as the ceasefire neared, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminded enemies and allies alike that the first phase of the deal was temporary, and that Israel could still go back to fighting if the talks on the next stage of the ceasefire broke down.

"We retain the right to return to the war, if necessary, with the backing of the United States," Netanyahu, whose coalition has been sharply divided by the ceasefire deal, said in a televised address.

Still, whatever the anxieties over the next weeks and months, on Sunday there were moments of joy.

One of the freed hostages, Emily Damari, could be seen smiling and leaning out the open window of a van as she was transported to Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. Damari had last been seen free 15 months ago, when she was kidnapped from her home at a kibbutz in southern Israel. She had been shot in the hand, and was driven away in her own car, a militant at the wheel.

A picture of Damari released by the Israeli military on Sunday showed her still smiling, though missing two middle fingers from her left hand. All three hostages later reunited with their relatives, who wept and gripped them tightly after more than a year apart, according to footage released by the Israeli government. Their parents, siblings and friends had fought an international campaign for their freedom.

Under terms of the deal, Hamas is to gradually free 33 hostages, and in exchange Israel is to release more than 1,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, including some serving life sentences for brutal attacks against Israelis. Ninety of them -- all women and minors -- were to be freed Sunday.

Friends of the three hostages released Sunday danced, sang, and waved Israeli flags in the air as they gathered at a hospital's helipad. Gal Kubani, 28, a friend of Damari's, said she was "overjoyed" by news of her release and "proud of Emily for surviving this madness."

In Gaza, the celebration was tempered by grief. More than 46,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli military campaign, according to Gaza health officials, who don't distinguish between civilians and combatants. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins, and many displaced people have no homes to which to return.,

Soon after the fighting stopped, waves of displaced Palestinians began heading north, anxious to see whether any parts of their homes still stood.

Many people said they were determined to start to reclaim the lives they had once known, despite the huge amount of destruction across the enclave. "The joy of returning home is overwhelming, but it's mixed with sadness," said Ahed al-Okka, 52, a construction worker from Gaza City.

For others like Suhaila Dawaas, a displaced Gaza resident who said she had lost eight relatives in the war, grief overshadowed any hope for the future. Her home was mostly destroyed, although she hoped to find a few reminders of the life her family once had in the rubble.

"I can't say I'm happy about this truce," said Dawaas, a 55-year-old mother of eight. "What is left for us after everything? After the endless losses, the destruction, the pain?"

Drone videos taken over Gaza showed people fanning out across a wasteland. Gaza's dense neighborhoods had been reduced to pancaked slabs of concrete, the roads turned to dust. With an untold number of bodies still trapped under the rubble, members of the Gaza Civil Emergency Service set to work.

The war began after Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people, Israel says, and capturing 250 hostages. Some 100 hostages are still in Gaza, although around a third are believed to be dead.

Israel and Hamas have both preserved some of their bargaining chips. At the end of the first phase of the truce, Hamas will still have around two-thirds of the hostages. And Israel will still occupy parts of Gaza, and hold major prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti, a militant leader and iconic Palestinian political figure.

On Sunday, United Nations trucks carrying humanitarian supplies began entering Gaza just 15 minutes after the ceasefire took effect, according to Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN humanitarian office for the Palestinian territories. Months of lawlessness and restrictions on humanitarian deliveries had reduced aid to a trickle.

Two convoys carrying ready-to-eat food parcels and wheat flour arrived in the enclave on Sunday, one through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southeastern Gaza, and another at a crossing in the north, according to Martin Penner, a spokesperson for the United Nations' World Food Program. The ceasefire deal calls for 600 trucks to be allowed to bring aid to Gaza daily, although it was not clear how the supplies would be distributed.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the mood was anxious as families and friends waited for the first of 90 Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israel's Ofer prison. Some in the crowd wondered if the releases would actually happen.

"The people are too exhausted, and their feelings are mixed with sorrow over Gaza," said Zuhair Yousef, a taxi driver. "So, we are waiting until the last minute."

The ceasefire has already opened deep fissures within Netanyahu's governing coalition.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, resigned in protest from the Cabinet and withdrew his Jewish Power party from the coalition Sunday. The Religious Zionism party, led by Bezalel Smotrich, has suggested it could do the same unless Netanyahu continues the war after the initial truce. If it does so, Netanyahu's government would hold fewer than half of the seats in the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, which could eventually force the government to fall and force new elections.

Teams of diplomats representing both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump played a major role in brokering the ceasefire, and both men took credit for it on Biden's penultimate day in office.

In remarks in South Carolina, Biden defended his unwavering support for Israel, over the advice of some who had warned him that it could draw the U.S. into a wider war. "Abandoning the course, I was on would not have led us to the ceasefire we're seeing today," he said.