Friends reach out to British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari as she arrives at Sheba Medical Center after the first phase of a ceasefire agreement began between Israel and Hamas. Source: Getty / Alexi J. Rosenfeld

Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands of people waited to welcome them. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.

The crowd cheered, embraced and wept as three female hostages could be seen getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas fighters.

Medical staff at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan later said the three released women hostages were in a “stable condition”.

Emily Damari and her mother Mandy were reunited on Sunday after Emily was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. Source: AP / AP

Meanwhile, armed Hamas fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting.

“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after being lost in the desert for 15 months,” said Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year.

‘Welcome home’

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group hailed their return as “a beacon of light”.

Doron Steinbrecher and her mother Simona embrace after Doron was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. Doron was abducted from her home in kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October 2023. Source: AP / AP

Meanwhile, crowds braved the cold along the route where Palestinian prisoners are to be released from Israeli detention as part of the ceasefire deal.

In the occupied West Bank, buses awaited their release.

Romi Gonen and her mother Merav embrace after Romi was released from captivity by Hamas militants in Gaza. Hamas gunmen abducted Romi from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. Source: AP / AP

“As soon as the atmosphere began, we came here to witness it and feel the emotions, just like the families of the prisoners who are being released today,” said Amanda Abu Sharkh, 23, from the nearby city of Ramallah.

For Hamas, the truce could provide an opportunity to emerge from the shadows after 15 months in hiding. Hamas policemen dressed in blue police uniforms were swiftly deployed in some areas.

‘Complete joy’ for some Gazans while ‘deep pain’ remains

“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry,” he said.

A view of destruction in the Jabalia refugee camp as the ceasefire begins. Source: Getty / Anadolu/Anadolu

In a pocket of Rafah that was relatively spared, Ahmed Abou Mohsen, 20, and his family returned to their abandoned home and were unpacking from the back of an open-backed white truck piled with bags of clothes, jerry cans and mattresses.

Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings in the hours before the ceasefire. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said they started to cross on Sunday morning (local time).

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.

Hamas ‘will never govern Gaza’

The other most prominent hardliner, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, stayed in the government but said he would quit if the war ended without Hamas completely destroyed.

The October 7 attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.