Gazans stream back home as Israel-Hamas ceasefire holds

COUNTDOWN TO HOSTAGES RELEASE

Once the Israeli forces completed their redeployment on Friday, which keeps them out of major urban areas but still in control of roughly half the enclave, the clock began ticking for Hamas to release its hostages within 72 hours, by Monday noon.

“We are very excited, waiting for our son and for all the 48 hostages,” said Hagai Angrest, whose son Matan is among the 20 Israeli hostages believed to still be alive. “We are waiting for the phone call.” 

Twenty-six hostages have been declared dead in absentia, and the fate of two more is unknown. 

According to the agreement, after the hostages are freed, Israel will release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, many of them captured during the war. 

Hundreds of trucks per day are expected to surge into Gaza carrying food and medical aid.

UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said on Saturday the United Nations’ children’s agency expects to significantly scale up supplies of high-energy food for malnourished children, menstrual hygiene supplies, and tents, starting on Sunday.

Witkoff, Kushner, and the US military’s Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper accompanied Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir in Gaza, the military said in a statement.

Cooper said in a statement that his visit was part of the establishment of a task force that would support stabilisation efforts in Gaza, though US troops would not be deployed inside the enclave. 

TRUMP EXPECTED TO TRAVEL TO ISRAEL AND EGYPT

But questions remain about whether the ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal, the biggest step yet towards ending two years of war, will lead to a lasting peace under Trump’s 20-point plan.

Further steps in Trump’s plan have yet to be agreed upon. These include how the demolished Gaza Strip is to be ruled and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has rejected Israel’s demands that it disarm.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump expressed confidence that the ceasefire would hold. “They’re all tired of the fighting.” He said he believed there was a “consensus” on the next steps but acknowledged some details still have to be worked out.

In addition to the Egypt summit, Trump is also expected during his trip to the region to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, the first US president to do so since George W Bush in 2008.

Israelis and Palestinians alike rejoiced after the deal was announced to end a war in which more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, and to return the last hostages seized by Hamas in the deadly attack that provoked it.

During the Hamas attack on Israeli communities, military bases, and a music festival on Oct 7, 2023, militants killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and captured 251 hostages.