Israel-Gaza ceasefire latest: First 90 Palestinian prisoners released amid hostage for prisoner swap deal with Hamas

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have signalled they will limit attacks in the Red Sea corridor to Israeli-affiliated ships.

The Gaza ceasefire is a “crucial geopolitical moment” and it is “hugely important” to turn it into a process that allows Palestinians a “political horizon”, UK foreign secretary David Lammy has said.

“This is a crucial geopolitical moment in global affairs, and the United States will have a huge effect on that,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We’ve got 15 days until negotiations begin for the next phase.

“It’s hugely important now that we turn this into a political process… military might alone does not destroy Hamas terrorism. It is a political process that allows the Palestinian people a political horizon.

“That’s what we’ve got to get to, and we’ve got to give security to Israel, and that means the governance of Gaza, how Israelis remain secure and do not have another event like October 7th.

“But how, indeed, we bring the Palestinian Authority back in in Gaza, how the Arab states, Gulf states, are able to step back in and assist us and others with the reconstruction of Gaza… that is the significance of these next few weeks, and that’s what we’ve got to get to.”

Residents poured into the streets at the start of the truce, despite the devastation surrounding them.

Many returned to homes reduced to rubble during 15 months of relentless conflict that claimed over 46,000 lives.

A Palestinian journalist freed from an Israeli prison overnight has been seen reuniting with her young daughter in emotional footage.

Rula Hassanein, who is a freelance journalist and also an editor for the Ramallah-based Wattan Media Network, was filmed crying and embracing her toddler early on Monday.

Israeli forces arrested Ms Hassanein from her home in the West Bank on 19 March over her social media posts, according to a previous report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which called for her release on the grounds that her and her infant’s health had deteriorated during her months in Damon Prison, near the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

One of the Israeli hostages freed on the first day of the Gaza ceasefire has said she has “returned to my beloved life” in her first comments since being released.

British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, was one of three hostages freed Sunday after spending 471 days in captivity. Officials at a hospital that received them said their condition was stable.

In an Instagram story posted on Monday, which was shared by Israeli media, Damari thanked her family and the large protest movement that coalesced to advocate for the release of the hostages. “Thank you thank you thank you I’m the happiest in the world,” she said.

Damari, a dual Israeli-British citizen, returned from captivity with a bandage on one hand and authorities said she had lost two fingers during Hamas’ attack on 7 October, 2023. As she arrived to a hospital on Sunday she waved at a crowd that had gathered and footage later showed her joyfully reuniting with her family.

The three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity on Sunday and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold.

France will keep fighting to obtain the release of the two French-Israeli nationals held by Hamas, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told BFM TV on Monday.

“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding France had “no news on their health status nor on the terms of their detention”.

French-Israeli nationals Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the draft Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

Basil Farraj, a researcher from Birzeit University who attended the handover of Palestinian prisoners from Ofer Prison, raised concerns about the prison conditions in Israel as he drew attention to the health of the released detainees.

“We have seen prisoners coming out of the buses in bad health with pale conditions and looking very weak. I think that attests to the conditions the Israelis have long been holding Palestinians in,” Mr Farraj told Al Jazeera.

“It is important to highlight that Israeli authorities since before the war have banned any form of communication with the family of prisoners. So, for many, it was the first time they’ve seen their loved ones since the war began.”

Many of the 90 prisoners freed were women and children. “The Israeli military courts do not treat children as children. They treat them as adults. One can imagine what it means to be incarcerated for more than 15 months in such harsh conditions as a child.”

London-based film-maker Sharone Lifschitz, whose father Oded remains a hostage, said “we can start healing” once all the hostages are freed.

She knows he was alive in Gaza in late October 2023 but has heard no news of him since.

“He was frail and he was shot in the hand,” she told BBC News on Sunday. “His chances are not great but we will know (soon).”

Israel has freed the first 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas to pause the war in Gaza, around seven hours after three Israeli hostages released from Hamas captivity in Gaza returned to Israel.

A large bus carrying dozens of Palestinian detainees exited the gates of Israel’s Ofer prison, just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah. Israel’s military, which occupies the West Bank, warned Palestinians against public celebration, but crowds thronged the buses after they left the prison, some people climbing on top or waving flags, including those of Hamas.

There were fireworks and whistles, and shouts of “God is great”. Those released were hoisted onto others’ shoulders or embraced.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military released the first photos of the three hostages reuniting with their mothers at a reception centre in southern Israel, before they were flown by helicopter to hospital.

In the photos, the women embrace their mothers. Merav Leshem Gonen cradled her daughter Romi, beaming. Emily Damari embraced her mother, and in a video call with her brother, showed her hand where she lost two fingers on 7 October. Doron Steinbrecher and her mother Simona embraced in a fierce hug.

The hostages and their mothers have arrived at a hospital in central Israel, where they will reunite with the rest of their family and receive medical treatment. They are expected to stay in the hospital for a number of days.