A long-delayed peace in the Gaza battle began taking keep as Hamas released three victims in trade for 90 Palestinians held in Israeli prison.
The first block in the combat since November 2023 appeared to go as planned, following decades of conversations by the Biden administration, along with Qatar and Egypt, finally a new push by President-elect Donald Trump for a bargain before his opening on Monday. The six-week peace aims for the transfer of 33 Jewish captives and hundreds of Palestinians in jail in Israel — 30 for each captive freed.
The three Jewish girls — Romi Gonen , Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, who’s even a British national — were united with their parents on Sunday at an initial greeting center near the Gaza borders. Air Force aircraft after flew them to a doctor where they were reunited with the rest of their people and received medical treatment, the IDF said in a statement.
The Arab detainees were released from cars early Monday night. They included 78 people of the West Bank, who were released at the Beitunia station near Ofer Prison. Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross escorted the captives on the cars.
Among the released Israelis, Steinbrecher, 31, and Damari, 28, were kidnapped from Kfar Aza, and Gonen, 24, was abducted at the Nova audio festival on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The Jewish authorities embraces the three returnees. Their families were informed by the appointed officials that they joined our ( IDF) forces, ” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s company. “The Jewish state is committed to the transfer of all captives and missing people. ”
Among the Arab captives on the list to be released were 69 people and 21 people, some of whom are juveniles.
The move came periods after the start of the package. Sunday ’s switch was the first to take place as part of the contract.
U. S. President Joe Biden told reporters on Sunday the cease-fire deal he helped broker was “one of the toughest conversations ” in his profession, and said he had heard the released captives were in good condition.
“Today the cannons in Gaza have gone silent, ” Biden said. “Today we’re seeing victims being released — three Jewish people held against their will in the dark caverns for 470 time. ”
Biden said he anticipated some hundred vehicles of help would provide the Gaza Strip on Sunday, and said the ultimate success of the deal would “require persistence and continuing support for our friends in the region, and the belief in diplomacy backed by deterrence ” by the incoming administration.
Trump, whose Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff joined conversations in their concluding times, celebrated the launch in a social media post a day ahead of his opening.
“Hostages starting to come out now! Three beautiful young ladies will be first, ” Trump wrote.
On Sunday, hundreds of ordinary Israelis gathered outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in what has become known as Victims Square to watch and wait as the three ladies were returned.
Avichai Brodutch, whose wife and three children were abducted to Gaza and released after 51 times more than a year earlier, said that he has merely an indication of what the households expecting their daughters house after 15 weeks have endured.
Two of the women coming again on Sunday are from Brodutch’s social group, Kfar Aza, as are three people expected to get returned later in the process.
Brodutch said when he got the contact in November of 2023 that his home was expected out later that evening, he rushed to Kfar Aza, which was still in remains from the Hamas strike the past month, and grabbed unique items — pillows, dolls, his wife’s bag — to greet them when they met.
At the hospital to which they were taken, he said, “ I waited when the cranes opened, I saw my kids coming out the windows, it was unbelievable. I got my home born. They were narrow and whole of fleas but talking and breathing. Victims live with scars in their hearts for their whole life. But we have lived a mystery, and I thank God for it every day. ”
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