TEL AVIV — Israelis celebrated the return Sunday evening of the first wave of hostages from the Gaza Strip, hours after Israel and Hamas' long-awaited ceasefire went into effect and spurred many displaced Palestinians to begin the journey home by foot after 15 months of brutal conflict.
Many hope the hard-fought reprieve will usher in a permanent end to the fighting which health officials in Gaza say has left more than 46,800 Palestinians killed, and allow the rebuilding of the enclave, much of it reduced to ruins by ferocious Israeli airstrikes and shelling.
President Joe Biden celebrated the safe return of three female hostages — the first in a coordinated effort expected to continue in the coming days — and said a ceasefire in Gaza was reached due to “the pressure Israel put on Hamas backed by the United States.”
“Today, the guns in Gaza have gone silent,” Biden said in televised remarks in his final full day in office. He added that the three hostages “appear to be in good health.”
Video shared by the Israeli military showed the young women climbing out of a Red Cross vehicle and smiling and hugging waiting Israeli forces. They were later reunited with their mothers in Israel — all of them embracing — and were due to be medically examined at a hospital near Tel Aviv.
The women were all abducted in the Hamas-led terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. It marked a major escalation in the decadeslong conflict.
The three women released were: Doron Steinbrecher, 31, a veterinary nurse taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza; Emily Damari, 28, a British Israeli citizen also taken from Kfar Aza and a key figure in the kibbutz's youth community; and Romi Gonen, 24, taken from the Nova Music Festival. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the relatives of captives, said Damari lost two fingers on Oct. 7.
Staff at Sheba Medical Center, where the hostages were brought, said they were given time to reunite with other family and friends at the hospital, and suggested none of the women required immediate medical procedures.
"I know, we all know, they have been through hell," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told military leaders. "They are emerging from darkness into light."
On Sunday, hundreds of aid trucks began entering Gaza, where a dire humanitarian crisis has unfolded and critical infrastructure has been destroyed during Israel's offensive.
Gazans took the rare opportunity to see what, if anything, was left of their homes after Israel's blistering offensive, which destroyed or damaged most of the enclave's buildings and displaced almost all of its 2 million residents. Amid the devastation, some celebrated in the streets to mark the beginning of the fragile truce.
The ceasefire came after an hourslong delay during which at least 19 people were killed in Gaza, according to the enclave's Civil Defense agency, as Israeli forces continued to attack parts of the enclave before the truce came into effect.
NBC News' crew in Gaza captured video of large crowds of families moving near Rafah, in southern Gaza, mostly on foot, in the hours during the delay. It was not clear if they knew the ceasefire had not yet come into effect.
One smiling young boy could be seen steering a cart pulled by a donkey as he exclaimed: “To Rafah, to Rafah."
In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, a crowd cheered and clapped as the news came in that the hostages were in Red Cross custody just after 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) and then crossed safely into Israeli territory.
Early Monday, Israel's Prison Service said the first group of 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released as part of the agreement. All 90 are children and women, according to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs. For every hostage released, 30 Palestinian prisoners will be freed — 50 if the hostage is a female soldier.
Four additional living hostages are expected to be released in seven days, the coordinator for hostages, returnees and missing persons in Netanyahu’s office said. It added that their families would be informed of the names of those to be released 24 hours prior to that date.
Biden said he anticipates at least two Americans will be released as part of this initial phase, as 33 hostages will be set free in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The first Americans to be released will be Keith Siegel, 65, on Day 14 of the ceasefire, and then Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, who is injured, according to a senior administration official and a diplomatic official.
The other five Americans, both alive and dead, will not be released until the second phase of the ceasefire deal, the officials said. They are expected to include a dual national, Edan Alexander, 20, whose condition is unknown.
A total of 94 people seized and taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, are still believed to be in Hamas’ captivity, along with four people who have been held by Hamas since 2014. At least 34 of those taken hostage during the Hamas-led attacks are understood to be dead, while two of the abductees taken captive in 2014 are also dead.
The ceasefire is expected to pause more than a year of unrelenting Israeli bombings, and also open the floodgates to desperately needed aid, with up to 600 trucks a day to enter the enclave, according to the World Health Organization. A shortage of food, medicine and fuel, plus deadly violence, has created a spiraling humanitarian crisis marked by widespread hunger and sickness.
If all the phases of the ceasefire go ahead as planned, it will bring relief — and possible closure — to families of the hostages trapped in the enclave under terrifying and dangerous conditions, as well as to Palestinian families whose loved ones have been detained by the Israeli military.
Negotiations over a second stage are expected to get underway by the 16th day of the first phase. Biden said Wednesday that this round would aim to bring about a “permanent end to the war,” as both the outgoing administration and President-elect Donald Trump have pressed for a resolution to the conflict ahead of Monday's presidential inauguration.
