Three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners released in first day of Gaza ceasefire

20 January 2025, 00:57 | Updated: 20 January 2025, 05:24

Three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners have now been exchanged between Israel and Hamas as the first day of the ceasefire agreement came to a close.

Three hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners have been released, as more than 630 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza as the first day of the truce came to a close.

Emily Damari, 28, a British-Israeli citizen, Romi Gonen, 24, and Doren Steinbecher, 31, were the three first hostages released today by Hamas as part of the deal. The hostages were healthy, and are being kept at a hospital for monitoring.

In return, Israel has returned 90 Palestinians, all women and children, from its Ofer prison just outside the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Israel injured seven people gathered outside the prison, after a drone dropped tear gas on the families of the prisoners and other people gathered.

The hostages released by Hamas have been reunited with their families, as celebrations erupted across the country.

The Israeli military has warned Palestinians of any form of public celebration today as they welcome back their loved ones.

British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, who grew up in south-east London before moving to Israel, is one of the first three hostages that have been released by Hamas, and has now been reunited with her mother Mandy.

She is being kept, along with the other two hostages, in the Sheba Medical Center, where doctors will continue to monitor their clinical conditions.

Mandy, Emily's mother, said: "I want to thank everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal, and who never stopped saying her name.

“In Israel, Britain, the United States, and around the world. Thank you for bringing Emily home.”

The Palestinian prisoners, all women and children, who the Israeli prison service has called ‘terrorists’, have been released in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

They were released in the middle of the night, several hours after Hamas released the hostages.

Among the released detainees is Khalida Jarrar, 62, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular left-wing group that used to carry out hijackings and other attacks on Israel in the 1970s but has reduced its militant activity in recent years.

Since she was arrested in December 2023, Ms Jarrar has been imprisoned under six-month administrative detention orders, which can be indefinitely renewed. This type of sentence has been denounced as a violation of international law.

Israel had detained the women and children for what it called offences related to the country’s security, which can range from throwing stones to more serious accusations like attempted murder.

However, many Palestinian prisoners are held without charge.

The exchange marks the end of the first day of phase one of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Phase one is supposed to last 42 days,in which there will be a swap like this every seven days, Biden and Hamas confirmed today.

It would bring about the release of 33 hostages over the coming six weeks in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an Israeli withdrawal from many parts of the territory.

The largely devastated Gaza should see a surge in humanitarian aid. More than 630 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza today, as experts warn the need for aid is enormous.