The first three hostages released from Gaza arrived in Israel on Sunday, January 19, for tearful reunions with families, hours after the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold following 15 months of war. Palestinians waited for the first release of prisoners held by Israel.
Footage showed 28-year-old Emily Damari, 24-year-old Romi Gonen and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher in a tense handover to the Red Cross on a Gaza City street. They were surrounded by a crowd of thousands, accompanied by masked, armed men wearing green Hamas headbands. The women were taken to Israeli forces and then into Israel, where their mothers were waiting.
The three women were in stable condition, Sheba Medical Center said, and authorities released footage of them reuniting with their families, hugging fiercely and sobbing. Israel’s military also released images showing Damari raising a bandaged hand in triumph. It said she lost two fingers in the attack that sparked the war.
In Tel Aviv, thousands of people who gathered to watch the news on large screens erupted in applause. For months, many had gathered in the square weekly to demand a ceasefire deal.
"An entire nation embraces you," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival , while the others were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza . Damari is an Israeli-British dual citizen and Steinbrecher has Israeli and Romanian citizenship.
The ceasefire ushers in an initial six weeks of calm and raises hopes for the release of nearly 100 remaining hostages and an end to the devastating war. A last-minute delay by Hamas put off the truce’s start by nearly three hours, but the spokesman for Hamas’ military wing later said it is committed to the ceasefire.
Next up was the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners later Sunday. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, families and friends gathered excitedly as cars honked and people waved the Palestinian flag.
The truce, which started at 11:15 a.m. local time, is the first step toward ultimately ending the conflict and returning hostages abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack. This is just the second ceasefire in the war, longer and more consequential than a weeklong pause in November 2023.
Negotiations on the ceasefire’s far more difficult second phase should begin in just over two weeks. Major questions remain, including whether the war will resume after the first phase.
Israel’s hard-line national security minister, meanwhile, said his Jewish Power faction was quitting the government in protest over the ceasefire. Itamar Ben-Gvir’s departure weakens Netanyahu’s coalition but will not affect the truce.
In a separate development, Israel announced it had recovered the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, in a special operation in Gaza. The bodies of Shaul and another soldier, Hadar Goldin, had remained after the 2014 war.