Dramatic day ushers in a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire after 15 months of war

A ceasefire finally took hold on Sunday after 15 months of war that began with a Hamas attack on Israel and led to massive Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip. In exchange, three women held captive in Gaza were released, while Israel freed 90 Palestinian prisoners.

However, the ceasefire nearly broke down during a two-hour period on Sunday morning. Hamas failed to provide the names of the three hostages scheduled for release in time, leading Israel to delay the ceasefire and continue airstrikes on Gaza. In what were supposed to be the first hours of peace, at least 19 Palestinians were killed and 36 others injured in the airstrikes, according to the Hamas-run civil defense agency. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed they struck "multiple terror targets."

Ultimately, Hamas sent the names of the three hostages to Israel through intermediaries, and the Israeli military operation in Gaza ceased. This marked the first such pause since a brief ceasefire and hostage exchange in November 2023. Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry, posted on X that the final obstacles had been cleared, and "the truce has thus begun." Qatar played a significant mediating role in this ceasefire agreement.

Six hours later, three Israeli hostages – Romy Gonen, 24, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Emily Damari, 28, who also holds British nationality – were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza, who then transferred them to the Israeli military. Television footage showed chaotic scenes at Saraya Square in Gaza City as crowds gathered around the vehicles carrying the hostages, with Hamas gunmen struggling to push people back.

Amid the crowds, the three women were briefly seen being taken from the vans. They were taken from the handover point in Gaza to the Re'im military base in southern Israel by the IDF, where they met their mothers. The IDF had meticulously planned the sensitive handover, with military medics and psychologists on standby at the reception center to help with their transition. They were then flown by helicopter to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv to be reunited with their families and receive further medical care. Two of them reportedly suffered gunshot wounds during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.

This release is the first of a planned series of releases over the next six weeks – if the ceasefire holds – that will ultimately see a total of 33 hostages released in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli authorities say 97 hostages remain in captivity, although dozens of them are presumed dead. In Gaza, the health ministry says more than 46,900 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive, and most of the territory’s pre-war population of 2.3 million has been displaced, with many civilians yearning to return home learning over the weekend that their long wait would continue.

The IDF was supposed to withdraw its forces from densely populated areas during the first phase of the agreement, but on Sunday warned civilians not to approach the buffer zone it had established along the Gaza border, nor the military zone in central Gaza, the so-called Netzarim Corridor, which separates the north of the territory from the south. It is expected to take a week for some of the displaced in the south to cross the corridor to return to their homes in the north. For civilians in Gaza, who have spent 15 months in tents and makeshift shelters, suffering malnutrition and disease, the relief of long-awaited peace was tempered by the scale of destruction and loss.

“God is my witness, the feeling is mixed,” said Helen Jabri, 41, from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, in a telephone interview. “Our hearts are broken for the people we have lost,” she said. “My brother and his whole family are gone. My father is a prisoner. We are happy that the bloodshed has stopped, but every family is filled with pain.” Some people began packing their bags on Sunday and walking away from Gaza, particularly from the southernmost areas including Rafah. But it will take a long time for large numbers of displaced people to resume any form of home or normal life. The north of the territory, including Gaza City, has suffered near total destruction during the war.

The UN satellite agency estimates that 60% of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks and demolitions, meaning that many displaced people will have to remain in shelters or continue sleeping rough for now, prolonging the massive humanitarian crisis. “The vast majority of shelters are overcrowded and many people are simply living in the open air or in makeshift structures,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa. “They lack basic needs such as warm clothing. I wouldn’t call these living conditions, these are not conditions fit for human beings.” Noura Zakout, an education ministry employee from Gaza City, told the BBC from a shelter in Khan Younis on Sunday that she would return to the city at the first opportunity, “whatever the destruction and ruins.”

“I just want to go back to the city and breathe the air there,” she said. “We know we don’t have a home to go back to, but at least now there is a ceasefire and we can take a breath. Like a diver who has gone under the water, we have come up to breathe some air.” In Israel, the finalization of the first phase of the agreement brought relief to the families of the three hostages who had endured 15 months of anguish. Video footage released late on Sunday showed emotional reunions at the medical center near Tel Aviv. Mandy Damari said in a statement that her daughter’s “nightmare in Gaza is over” and thanked “all those who never stopped fighting for Emily.”

For others, it brought a continuation of uncertainty. The first phase will see 33 hostages released, but their condition is not clear, with reports that some have been killed. Among those remaining are just two children – brothers Kfir and Ariel Bibas, aged two and four. The boys were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, along with their parents Shiri and Yarden. Hamas announced in December 2023 that Shiri and the children had been killed, but Israeli authorities have never confirmed this. “I’m afraid to hope,” said Yarden’s cousin, Elon Keshet, on Saturday night, which was Kfir’s second birthday. “I’m not allowing myself to really imagine, because when I start imagining, I feel my stomach churning,” he said. Seeing Shiri and the children alive would be “a miracle,” he said. Daniel Lifshitz’s grandfather, Oded, is the second oldest hostage, aged 84, and he said on Sunday that it was “amazing to see the ceasefire begin.”

“We’re getting closer to the day that I’ll see my grandfather,” he said. “But at the same time, today is very, very difficult, because we don’t know if he’s alive or dead. We don’t know whether to prepare for a funeral or a celebration.” In exchange for the three hostages released on Sunday, the Israeli prison service freed 90 Palestinians from the Ofer detention center in the occupied West Bank early on Monday. They were also transferred to the Red Cross before being taken to a designated area where they would be allowed to return home. In the nearby West Bank town of Beitunia, crowds gathered to await the prisoners, with some starting bonfires and setting up roadblocks.

For families in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, there is still considerable anxiety that the fragile ceasefire could collapse over the next six weeks. The morning delays were quickly overcome, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel “reserves the right to continue achieving its war goals in Gaza” if the terms of the agreement are broken again. On Sunday, several of Israel’s far-right ministers resigned in protest at the terms of the deal, further weakening Netanyahu’s already precarious hold on government.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the most prominent critic of the deal, has long opposed a ceasefire, saying it came before Israel had achieved its main war aim of destroying Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He announced on Sunday that his far-right Jewish Power party would collectively resign from the government. While he pledged not to try to bring down the government, the move leaves the embattled prime minister with only a slim majority in parliament. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said at a press conference on Sunday that he would not oppose those who opposed the deal, which he said came at a “heavy price for Israel.”

“Any agreement with a terror organization is a bad thing,” he said. “Releasing terrorists from our prisons is a heavy price, and there are risks.” Saar acknowledged there had been “very fierce debates” within the government about the terms of the agreement. “But we are doing it because of our commitment to our brothers and sisters who have been held captive for more than 15 months. We will do our best to bring them home.” According to the BBC, under the agreement with Israel, checkpoints in Gaza previously controlled by Israeli forces will be handed over to Hamas police, who will manage the movement of displaced people northwards, while Israeli forces withdraw. The arrangement has raised questions about how to stop armed fighters also moving north, and there are fears of chaos as large numbers of people move and try to access aid in the area.

Aid trucks began entering Gaza 15 minutes after the ceasefire came into effect. But the scale of need is enormous. Even before the conflict, Gaza was heavily reliant on aid. With farmland and food infrastructure destroyed, Unrwa says that 600 trucks a day should be entering Gaza. Majed al-Ansari, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesman, told the BBC that a dedicated operations center in Cairo would monitor the ceasefire from abroad, to try to ensure that “the level of chaos is minimized as aid goes in.” But he added that in this first phase, Hamas would largely be in charge of this process within Gaza. Ansari called the agreement “a last chance for Gaza, and a last chance for the region.”

“It’s an agreement of hope, it’s an agreement of the future, it’s an agreement for all of us together,” he said. US President-elect Donald Trump posted on the social media site Truth Social to welcome the ceasefire, with his envoy, Steve Witkoff, having helped broker the deal alongside President Joe Biden’s team. “Hostages are starting to come out today! Three great young women will be the first,” he wrote. In Gaza City on Sunday evening, Abdulla Shabir, a young emergency doctor who has worked tirelessly since the start of the war, seeing hundreds die and treating thousands of injured, allowed himself a moment of joy. “It is only because these people are my people that I have been able to keep going,” he said. “I don’t know how to express what I am feeling right now, but there is joy. Most importantly the bloodshed has stopped. God willing, everything else will follow.”