Palestinians poured into the streets to celebrate and headed back to the rubble of their bombed-out homes on Sunday, January 19, as the Red Cross went to retrieve the first hostages to be freed under a ceasefire deal that halted fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The truce finally took effect after a three-hour delay, during which Israeli forces pounded Gaza from the air in a final blitz, killing 13 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was on its way to collect from Hamas the first hostages to go free under the ceasefire deal, an official involved in the operation told Reuters.

The militants identified three women as the first hostages it would release on Sunday under the agreement, which calls for 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza to go free over a six-week first phase, in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

When the shooting stopped, Palestinians burst into the streets, some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives.

“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, told Reuters via a chat app.

In the north of the territory, where some of the most intense Israeli airstrikes and battles with the militants took place, people picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal.

Armed Hamas fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting. Hamas policemen, dressed in blue police uniform, deployed in some areas after months of trying to keep out of sight to avoid Israeli strikes.

People who had gathered to cheer the fighters chanted “Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades” – the armed wing of Hamas.

“All the resistance factions are staying in spite of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” one fighter told Reuters. “This is a ceasefire, a full and comprehensive one God willing, and there will be no return to war in spite of him.”

The streets in shattered Gaza City in the north of the territory were already busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones. Several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.

Gaza City resident Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, sheltering with his family in Khan Younis, said the scene of destruction in his home city was “dreadful,” adding that while the ceasefire may have spared lives it was no time for celebrations.

“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time that we hug one another and cry.”

Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings in the hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect. The World Food Programme said they began to cross on Sunday morning.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

The war between Israel and Hamas began after the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks that reduced the Gaza strip to a wasteland, according to medical officials in the enclave. Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of the enclave homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.

The ceasefire agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, and comes into effect on the eve of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who put pressure on both Hamas and Israel to bring fighting to a halt before he takes office.

Hamas identified the first three Israeli hostages who would go free on Sunday in exchange for 90 Palestinians as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. Israel did not immediately confirm the names. – Rappler.com