First hostages return to Israel as ceasefire with Hamas goes into effect [View all]
Last edited Sun Jan 19, 2025, 12:48 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: NBC News
Jan. 19, 2025, 1:54 AM EST / Updated Jan. 19, 2025, 12:04 PM EST
TEL AVIV — The first hostages released from the Gaza Strip were in Israel on Sunday evening, hours after a long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect and halted Israeli military operations after 15 months of brutal conflict.
Many hope the hard-fought reprieve from the fighting will usher in a more permanent end to the war.
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 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.
Hundreds of aid trucks were beginning to enter Gaza, which has been devastated by airstrikes and shelling in the wake of Israel's response to Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas led a cross-border terrorist attack that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken as hostages.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ceasefire-israel-hamas-gaza-hostage-release-palestinian-rcna188248
Article updated.
Original article/headline -
Jan. 19, 2025, 1:54 AM EST / Updated Jan. 19, 2025, 10:50 AM EST
TEL AVIV — The long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect in the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, with the release of the first hostages and a halt to Israeli military operations after 15 months of conflict. Many hope the hard-fought reprieve from the fighting will usher in a more permanent end to the war.
Gazans took the rare opportunity to see what, if anything, was left of their homes. NBC News crews in Gaza captured large crowds of families moving near Rafah, in southern Gaza, mostly on foot. One family was riding on a cart pulled by a donkey. “To Rafah, to Rafah, inside, in Gaza,” a smiling young boy exclaims as he steered the cart.
And three female hostages were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross just after 5 p.m. local time, to be taken to Israel.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, a crowd cheered and clapped as the news came in that the hostages were in Red Cross custody. The released hostages are all young women: Doron Steinbrecher, 31, taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7, a veterinary nurse; Romi Gonen, 24, taken from the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7; and Emily Damari, 28, a British Israeli citizen taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7 and a key figure in the kibbutz’s youth community.
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