3 Israeli hostages released as Gaza ceasefire takes effect

The first three Israeli hostages were released from the Gaza Strip under a ceasefire agreement on Sunday and have returned to Israel and reunited with their families.

Meanwhile, Gazans are immersed in celebrations marking the end of over 15 months of deadly Israeli strikes.

The ceasefire ended an Israeli offensive that claimed more than 46,900 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza's health authorities. The deadly fighting also razed much of Gaza and caused widespread hunger and diseases in the strip.

Among the three released women are Emily Damari, a 28-year-old British-Israeli and Doron Steinbrecher, a Romanian-Israeli veterinary nurse aged 30, both of whom were abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza outside northern Gaza, and Romi Gonen, 23, who was taken from the Nova music festival.

A live broadcast from Gaza showed the hostages, freed from 471 days of captivity, being transferred from a Hamas vehicle surrounded by armed militants to a Red Cross vehicle, which transported them to Israeli forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released photos of the women embracing their mothers at a military compound outside Gaza. Later, helicopters flew them to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, where they received medical and psychological care.

Meanwhile,in Gaza, celebrations erupted in the streets, with people chanting and waving the flag of Palestine. Displaced residents began returning to their homes in northern and southern regions, only to find much of the infrastructure reduced to dust.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is set to release 90 Palestinian detainees on Sunday, primarily women and children from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Over the next six weeks, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in phases, including women, children, men over 50, the sick, and the injured.

Deceased hostages are expected to be returned in later stages. Israel estimates that about half of the 98 hostages still held in Gaza are alive, though Hamas has not provided confirmation.

In Tel Aviv, large crowds gathered at Hostage Square to celebrate and demand adherence to the agreement. Families and friends of the hostages were seen following the news of their release, cheering and bursting into tears as the women were transferred to Israeli forces.

Netanyahu called the release "a great moment, an exciting moment...," adding that the three "went through hell."

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