Thousands of displaced Gazans return to homes as cease-fire begins
Monitoring Desk GAZA: Thousands of displaced Gazans carrying tents, clothes and belongings began heading to their homes Sunday after a long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect after over 15 months of war. Palestinians traveling by truck, donkey cart, and on foot back to their homes through devastated swathes of Gaza, particularly in the northern parts of the Palestinian territory. On Sunday, Jan. 19, displaced Palestinians began returning to their homes in the Gaza Strip as the Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect. Cease-fire delayed and took effect at 09.15 GMT Earlier late Wednesday evening, Qatar announced a three-phase ceasefire agreement to end over 15 months of deadly Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, with the ceasefire set to take effect at 8:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Sunday. The cease-fire was delayed and took effect at 11.15 a.m. local time (0915GMT) after Israel accused Hamas of delaying the release of a list of Israeli captives set to be released on Sunday. Hamas said that it already submitted a list of three female Israeli captives set to be freed on Sunday. Nearly 47,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and more than 110,700 injured by Israel in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to local health authorities. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave. Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official on Sunday told AFP that the group had handed over three Israeli women hostages to the Red Cross on Sunday, as agreed with Israel in a ceasefire deal. “The three women hostages were officially handed over to the Red Cross at Al-Saraya Square in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City,” the official said. In a related development, the first humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza from Egypt on Sunday as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire started taking effect, Palestinian sources confirmed. The first humanitarian aid entered the coastal enclave through the border crossing of Kerem Shalom in the southern of Gaza. Earlier in the day, the Egyptian state-run TV showed footage of dozens of aid trucks crossing the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing to be inspected by Israeli authorities before crossing the Palestinian side to enter Gaza. Delegations from mediators Qatar and the United States, in addition to others from Palestine and Israel, arrived in Cairo on Sunday to monitor the implementation of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, added the TV reports. Based on the ceasefire agreement, about 600 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, including 50 fuel trucks, would enter Gaza every day to ease the humanitarian crises in Gaza. The 42-day first stage of the ceasefire deal, reached on Wednesday through the mediation of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, started taking effect on Sunday after Hamas provided a list of the three Israeli female captives to be released later in the day, the report noted. Also, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the ceasefire agreement started taking effect.