Gaza truce: 3 hostages freed by Hamas after 471 days reunite with their families in Israel

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:

• Israel said its strikes targeted terrorists, while Hamas said the delay in sharing the hostages’ names was due to technical reasons. After the issue was sorted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the three hostages through a phone call as they were driven across the border.

• The three girls appeared to be in good health according to a video released by the Israeli military. Damari, who lost two fingers on the day she was shot and abducted by Hamas, could be seen smiling and embracing her mother as she held up a bandaged hand.

• Hundreds of Israelis in Tel Aviv watched a live broadcast from Gaza showing the three girls getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas terrorists, and cheered as they crossed the border.

• In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, buses awaited the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention. Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for the hostages includes 69 women and 21 teenage boys.

• Hundreds of Palestinians picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble in Gaza even as armed Hamas fighters drove through the streets amid cheers from the crowd.

• US President Joe Biden, on his last day in office, welcomed the truce and said “it was a long road”. He stressed that “the guns in Gaza have gone silent” and said the deal was reached due to the pressure “Israel applied on Hamas backed by the US”.

• The ceasefire deal urges Israel and Hamas to stop fighting, sending tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza and release of 33 of nearly 100 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for the freeing of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

• The truce came into effect a day before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office. His national security advisor-designate, Mike Waltz, has warned that the US would support Israel “in doing what it has to do” if Hamas violated the agreement. Waltz also said that Hamas would not govern Gaza, stressing it was “completely unacceptable”.

• Before the ceasefire came into effect, long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings. The World Food Programme said they began to cross on Sunday morning.

• Hamas terrorists stormed Israeli towns and villages through air, land and sea on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 as hostages. Israel launched a deadly counter-offensive on Hamas in Gaza, leaving more than 47,000 Palestinians dead and nearly the entire 2.3 million population homeless.