Israel-Hamas ceasefire: U.N. body reports a ‘good’ first day of ceasefire as much-needed aid enters Gaza

Dozens of Palestinians were surrounded by rubble and ruin as they attempted to return to their homes in Jabalia, northern Gaza, today.

In a video shared to Instagram, Palestinians were seen carrying their belongings while walking around piles of debris and gutted buildings.

"They returned to their destroyed homes with hearts full of pain," the caption read.

In a statement issued today, Hamas said a second batch of Israeli hostages will be freed Saturday.

The group did not share any additional details on the release of the hostages.

Many hugs were exchanged and tears were shed in video shared by the Israeli military showing the reunions of freed hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher with their families.

"I came back alive, dad!" Gonen said to her father over a video call. "I came back alive!"

The freed hostages were transferred to Sheba Hospital in Israel where they were listed in stable condition.

An NBC News crew returned to Rafah’s Al-Najjar Hospital months after Israel’s ground offensive forced the hospital to close and thousands to evacuate.

Dr. Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, walked the crew through the rubble that remained of the hospital.

"The hospital's main building -- including reception, emergency services, clinics and x-ray facilities -- nothing remains of it," al-Hams said.

Family members of the Israeli hostages released today expressed their gratitude to President Donald Trump for his involvement in securing their return.

Yamit Ashkenazi, the sister of released hostage Doron Steinbrecher, said her release took too long.

"We reached this moment after far too long, and without Trump's involvement, it would not have happened," Ashkenazi said in a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Ashkenazi shared a message from Steinbrecher, in which she urged the release of other hostages.

"My return home doesn't mean those still there shouldn't return -- everyone must come back," she said. "I ask you to continue fighting, never give up, take to the streets, all phases of the deal must be implemented."

Romi Gonen's mother, Meirav Leshem Gonen, also expressed gratitude to Trump, adding that his "courageous support of Israel and reinforcement of human good in the world helped drive and bring about this moment."

Mandy Damari, Emily Damari's mother, said that there are still around 90 hostages who need to come home.

"There are too many other families who are waiting to hug their loved ones or bring them back for a proper burial," she said.

Nine Palestinian children were released from Israeli prisons overnight as part of the ceasefire deal, according to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The children, who were held in detention by Israel for over a year, were reunited with their families in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the organization said.

It is not clear why the children had been in custody.

Medical Aid for Palestinians said Monday was "the first day" in over 15 months that it hasn't reported on Palestinian deaths from Israeli military airstrikes in Gaza.

"MAP staff have celebrated the break from the onslaught, but are also mourning their personal losses," the agency said in a statement, adding that almost every staff member had either lost family members killed in Gaza, or were separated from relatives who had fled.

Mahmoud Shalabi, ⁠MAP’s deputy director of programs in north Gaza, said that when he returned to his home in Beit Lahia, he could not recognize the area anymore due to extensive destruction.

The NGO added that it was reviewing its Gaza projects and what aid needs to be delivered.

According to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a total of 634 aid trucks entered Gaza on the first day of the ceasefire yesterday. While Gazans have been trying to return to their homes, 92% of housing units in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, according to OCHA.

Over 47,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrikes since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The ministry said 122 people have been killed in the enclave over the last 24 hours. Over 340 people have also been injured, per the ministry.

During remarks today at the U.N., Secretary General António Guterres said the ceasefire and hostage release deal "offer a ray of hope."

Guterres commended Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. for their efforts in making the deal happen.

Tel al-Sultan, a refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza, has been reduced to "rubble and ash," according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

A video shared by UNRWA on X today shows dozens of decimated buildings.

"The #ceasefire is just a starting point on a long journey to alleviate the suffering of people in #Gaza," read the caption of the video.

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it has launched a land bridge to supply Gaza with urgently needed fuel.

The plan is to send 12.5 million liters of fuel to the Strip in the first 10 days of the ceasefire agreement, according to the ministry of foreign affairs. Today, 25 trucks loaded with fuel were sent to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom border crossing to provide electricity to hospitals and shelters.

The land bridge "reflects the State of Qatar's firm position and continued support to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian" people, the ministry said.

Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich heavily criticized the ceasefire deal in the days leading up to its approval on Friday, insisting it would not signify the end of the war.

Those sentiments continued into the weekend, with Smotrich saying Gaza was “destroyed and broken, uninhabitable, and it will remain so,” adding that it was “an animalistic society which sanctifies death and dances on the ruins of its life.”

Israel would soon launch a “gradual takeover of the entire Gaza Strip” and “erase their smile again and replace it with cries of grief and the wails of those who were left with nothing,” he said.

Smotrich opposed the ceasefire deal and voted against it in the Security Cabinet session on Friday. Unlike the security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet on Sunday in protest of the deal, Smotrich has not yet resigned.

The Palestinian Ministry of Interior and National Security said it had begun deploying agencies in the streets and main intersections of the Gaza Strip this morning, according to a statement on Telegram Monday.

The ministry added that its various agencies were supporting the work of "opening roads and restoring services to citizens in the areas from which the occupation army withdrew," especially in the governorates of North Gaza and Rafah. It added it would intensify those efforts in the coming days to help "restore order."

“It’s going to take a long, long time to heal the wounds of the soul, and I know this because I live this every day,” said Avichai Brodutch, whose wife and three children were captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, before being released the following month.

Brodutch was speaking on Sunday at a media conference arranged by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the loved ones of Israel hostages currently and previously held by Hamas in Gaza. 

He told journalists that “I ask my wife all the time about what went on and how they were treated,” and he believes his wife was among the happiest to see the return of Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari — the first three hostages released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire deal that kicked in Sunday.

When he was reunited with his wife and children, Brodutch said "they were very, very thin and full of lice, but they were speaking and breathing.” Now, he says, they're "doing well."

Israel's centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid urged the Israeli government on Monday to turn its focus on rebuilding Israeli deterrence, economy and society in a post on X.

“Contrary to the government’s position, our goal is not to return to war,” he said, adding, “this is our mission now: to restore Israel to being the best country in the world to raise children.”

Lapid also said the hostage deal must be fully implemented until “the last of the hostages is returned to their families.”

Since the deal went into effect on Sunday, three far-right ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have left the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and resigned in protest.

Lapid told the Times of Israel today that he would provide a political safety net to Netanyahu to ensure the government does not fall because of the deal.

Boshara Amro, 21, was reunited with her sister, Jeneen, 23, after Jeneen was released under the Gaza ceasefire agreement from monthslong detention in an Israeli prison.

Khalida Jarrar was among the first wave of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli detention as part of the ceasefire deal. Jarrar, 62, was greeted by her family as the streets of occupied West Bank came alive with celebrations.

"The situation in the prison is very difficult and we wish freedom for the male and female prisoners," she told The Associated Press.

While Israel has branded those detained as "terrorists," it has rarely disclosed the crimes they were detained under, drawing allegations of arbitrary detentions. Israel is known to have held hundreds of detainees, almost all of them Palestinians, without charge or trial.

While joyful that she was released, Jarrar also lamented the conditions inside the detention centers, saying the prisoners are suffering from "complete deprivation of basic rights, such as food, cleaning supplies, and essential items. Prisoners do not have adequate clothing."

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief Works Agency, said in a post on X yesterday that flows of aid and some commercial supplies went smoothly after the ceasefire deal went into effect.

“After 470+ days, the people of Gaza hear the sound of children playing instead of bombardments and airstrikes,” Lazzarini said. “Our UNRWA teams reported a good first day of the ceasefire.”

He also thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for ensuring the safe release of three Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, who were reunited with their families, adding, “We will spare no effort to alleviate the immense suffering and scale up the humanitarian delivery.”

Last October, the Israeli parliament passed legislation banning the agency's operations in the besieged enclave, alleging its staff had ties with Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. UNRWA has denied the claim, warning that relief efforts in Gaza and the West Bank will be crippled in its absence.

“It will take me, us, a moment to breathe ... and believe in the reality that we have fulfilled together," said Merav Leshem-Gonen, mother of the freed hostage Romi Gonen, this morning.

"There are 94 more loved ones who need such a reality to be realized,” she wrote on her Facebook account.

In a separate post, she said, “we are in hours of an alternate reality, disconnected from the outside world, in which there is nothing but family."

Civilians walk through the rubble of collapsed buildings along a street in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip today, as they attempt to return to what is left of their homes.

When three Israeli hostages were released yesterday by Hamas, they were handed over to workers from the International Red Cross, which facilitated their return to home to be reunited with their loved ones.

"The operation was complex, requiring rigorous security measures to minimise the risks to those involved," The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.

The agency said it had to carefully navigate around Gaza due to exploded ordnances and destroyed infrastructure, adding that "navigating large crowds and heightened emotions posed challenges during the transfers."

Last night, on the outskirts of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, a crowd of cheering Palestinians waved large green Hamas flags as women and young men, held in an Israeli prison, were driven through the streets of Beitunia as they cheered from behind the tinted windows of two Red Cross buses.

When Hamas released the three hostages yesterday, they were given what appeared to be a bag branded with a logo of Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, video released by Hamas showed.

A Hamas official told a NBC News camera crew witnessing the transfer of the hostages that the bags contained a "release certificate," a map of Gaza and a picture of them while they were detained.

The women were made to pose with the bags in the video before they were finally released.

Trucks carrying aid from the United Nations World Food Programme drove into Gaza yesterday via the main Kerem Shalom crossing.

Yonaton Ben-David, 18, and his family share dinner with the family of Edan Alexander — an American still being held hostage by Hamas — once a week.

He told NBC News at Hostages Square that it’s “inconceivable” that his friend is still in captivity and said he “can’t even remember how it was between us when he was over at dinner before this war.”

The signed ceasefire deal has renewed hope among families whose members are still being held hostage, Ben-David said. He later conceded that it is “hard to trust” Hamas, though, on whether this deal will hold.

“It opens up so many things, so many opportunities,” Ben-David said of the deal. “You can’t not be happy seeing these people get freed,” he added.

As the ceasefire came into effect yesterday, more than 630 humanitarian aid trucks began entering Gaza, with half of those entering the northern part of the enclave, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

"There is no time to lose. After 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering," Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said.

Fletcher said the delivery of aid is complicated by the "mountains of rubble" and the "unexploded remnants of war."

"This is a moment of tremendous hope — fragile, yet vital — as we continue to navigate the complexities of the days and weeks ahead,” he added.

Yael Ben Artzi, 30, was holding a poster of Romi Gonen in Hostages Square on Sunday night, hours after Gonen was released from Hamas captivity as a part of phase one of the ceasefire agreement.

She said today was a “full excitement” and a show of “solidarity,” noting, “everybody is here because she is our sister and she is back home.” When they found out Gonen would be coming home, Ben Artzi said she and her friends “yelled” and “hugged each other.”

Though Ben Artzi doesn’t know Gonen personally, she described Gonen as her sister, as she said she would for any one of the hostages.

“She became part of my family like all the other hostages,” she said.

Ben Artzi has hope the ceasefire deal will hold and said she “never stopped believing” the war would one day come to an end.

Under the terms of this complex multi-phase deal, hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians in Israeli prisoners are expected to be released in waves, the first of which began yesterday with the release of 3 hostages and 90 Palestinians.

President Joe Biden said in a post on X yesterday that four more women are going to be released in the next seven days "and three hostages every seven days thereafter including at least two Americans in this first phase."

The next release is expected for this Saturday.

Talks for a second phase will begin on the 16th day of the deal, Biden said separately in a news briefing yesterday, which includes "the release of Israeli soldiers and a permanent end to the war without Hamas in power or able to threaten Israel."

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the ceasefire deal and called for the immediate release of all remaining hostages, including Thai nationals.

Thailand is one of Israel's biggest sources of foreign labor, particularly in its agriculture sector.

Some 31 Thai nationals were taken hostage during Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Of those, 23 have since been released and two were confirmed to have died in October 2023, leaving six still in captivity.

The World Health Organization said it would implement a 60-day plan to restore and expand the health system in Gaza, saying billions in investment is needed after much of it was destroyed.

"Addressing the massive needs and restoring the health system will be an extremely complex and challenging task, given the scale of destruction, operational complexity and constraints involved," the group said yesterday. "Billions in investment are needed to support recovery of the health system, which will require the unwavering commitment of donors and the international community."

Only half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, the group said, while almost all hospitals have been damaged or partly destroyed. An estimated 25% of those injured, or about 30,000 people, "face life-changing injuries and will need ongoing rehabilitation," and the Palestinian enclave is also grappling with severe malnutrition and the spread of infectious diseases.

The WHO said priority areas of focus would include trauma and emergency care, primary health care, child health, noncommunicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health, rehabilitation and mental health. 

There were scenes of joy in the West Bank as families awaited to welcome the 90 prisoners who Israel freed as a part of the ceasefire deal. The 90 prisoners were released in exchange for the three Israeli hostages.

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