Main events from Januari 19th

Israelis rejoice as 3 hostages returned after more than 470 days in Gaza

Carrying her small daughter, an Israeli mother stood amid a crowd of people next to the helipad of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, which on Sunday received the three former hostages released in a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.

“How good is it that you’ve come home,” read a sign in Hebrew held by the young daughter.

The helicopters, which took off from southern Israel, near the Gaza border, carried Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – the first of 33 hostages set for release during the first phase of the deal that went into effect Sunday morning.

The three women were kidnapped by Hamas during its attack on October 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 250 others captive.

Footage shared by the Israeli government shows the three women arriving at the hospital, draped in Israeli flags and embracing their families.

Near the Sheba hospital, a group of Israelis played music and sang patriotic songs on Sunday night. As medical vehicles carried the hostages from helicopters to the medical facility, dozens chased the vans, chanting their names.

“Thank you, thank you,” one woman cried as she was embraced by another.

Released hostage Emily Damari is the "happiest girl in the world," her mother says



Emily Damari, one of the three hostages released by Hamas on Sunday, is the “happiest girl in the world” now that she is out of Gaza, according to her mother.

“Yesterday, I was finally able to give Emily the hug that I have been dreaming of,” Mandy Damari said in a statement on Monday.

“I am relieved to report that after her release, Emily is doing much better than any of us could ever have anticipated. I am also happy that during her release, the world was given a glimpse of her feisty and charismatic personality,” she added.

“In Emily’s own words, she is the happiest girl in the world; she has her life back,” she said.

Emily Damari, a 28-year-old British-Israeli national, was released by Hamas alongside hostages Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, on Sunday, in the first phase of the ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Israel also returned 90 Palestinian prisoners – including 69 women and nine children.

Damari’s mother said that, while this is an “incredibly happy moment for our family, we must also remember that 94 other hostages still remain (in Gaza).

“The ceasefire must continue and every last hostage must be returned to their families,” she said.

Hamas gave the three hostages "gift bags" upon their release. This is what was inside

When Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, released its propaganda video of three Israeli hostages being released Sunday night, there was a striking detail.

As Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari got into a Red Cross SUV in Gaza City, a Hamas militant handed each of them a paper bag with the Qassam Brigades’ logo on it – a “gift bag,” of sorts.

The masked militant then held up a certificate that, in Hebrew and Arabic, read “release decision.”

Each of the three women was carrying the bag in footage released later Sunday by the Israel Defense Forces – albeit this time with the Qassam’ Brigades logo blurred.

A representative of Gonen’s family told CNN on Monday that the bag she received held the certificate, a necklace and photos – and said that Israel’s Internal Security Agency (the Shin Bet) had confiscated the materials.

They would not go into detail about the photo, but Israeli media reports that the photos depicted the women’s time in captivity.

Two injured by Israeli forces in Beitunia

Beitunia is one of the towns in the occupied West Bank where buses carrying freed Palestinian prisoners have arrived.

Sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that amid the celebrations, at least two Palestinians were injured by Israeli bullets.

Joy as freed Palestinians are greeted by family and loved ones

Hundreds of Palestinians cheered, chanted, honked car horns and set off fireworks as two Red Cross buses carrying the 90 freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia.

Jubilant Palestinians crowded the streets around the arriving buses with some climbing on top to unfurl the Hamas flag as well as the Palestinian national flag and those of Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed resistance groups, the AFP news agency reports.


_{People gather around a bus carrying freed Palestinian prisoners after their release from an Israeli jail as part of the ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank}

Inside the bus, some of the freed Palestinian female prisoners could be seen smiling and flashing the V for victory signs.


<sub>Freed Palestinians arrive in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in the early hours of Monday morning


Palestinians freed from Israel’s Ofer military prison wave to the crowd from an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) bus as they arrive in Beitunia, in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning</sub>

The 90 prisoners released early on Monday morning – all women and children – are the first of what is expected to be more than 1,000 Palestinians freed under the terms in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, and in exchange for 33 Israeli captives held in Gaza.

More than 230 of the Palestinian prisoners who will be freed under the agreement are expected to be exiled by Israel immediately upon their release, AFP reports.

_{At least 90 women and children were released on the first day of the ceasefire deal}

Khalida Jarrar freed after months in solitary confinement

The most prominent Palestinian prisoner freed in this batch is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader in the occupied West Bank, Khalida Jarrar.

She used to be a member of the Palestinian parliament, and it was really shocking to see how she looks now. Now you see how the prison has taken its toll on her. She’s been in solitary confinement.

_{Khalida Jarrar, the PFLP leader in the occupied West Bank, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank after she was released by Israel in a prisoner exchange in the early hours of Monday morning}

No guarantees freed Palestinian prisoners won’t be arrested again

There are no guarantees that the Palestinian prisoners who are expected to be freed as part of the deal will not be arrested again.

In fact, this has been the case in the past. For instance, Nael al-Barghouti was released in 2011 after 34 years in prison as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange deal with Hamas.

He spent only three years as a free man and then spent another 10 years in jail. Now, his family can’t wait to have him back.

But when it comes to guarantees that they won’t be arrested again, there are none.

Freed Palestinians say they were treated “like animals” in Israeli prison

Palestinian prisoners freed as part of the ceasefire-hostage release deal said Sunday they were held in horrific conditions in an Israeli jail in the occupied West Bank.

“I left hell and now I’m in heaven, we are out of hell,” freed inmate Abdelaziz Atawneh Atawneh told Reuters.

“They used to violate us, beat us, fire tear gas toward us. They used to count us while our heads were down on the floor. Suddenly they would enter the cells and fire gas toward us. They say bad words at us. There is no food, no sweets, no salt. There is nothing.”

Israel is expected to free almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners over the next six weeks during the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Most of those released Sunday were women and teenagers.

“Freedom, freedom, we used to see the sky through small squares. I used to say I hope I will see the sky without these squares,” 18-year-old freed prisoner Rose Khwais told Reuters.

Khwais said Israeli prison guards treated Palestinian inmates “like animals.”

“We leave the cells like chickens and then we were returned to our cells,” she said.

“They didn’t treat us well, there was no good food, no medical treatment. I had symptoms of a stroke, liquid around the heart, and also blood pressure (problems). I wasn’t afraid of the illnesses, I was worried that my family will know that I got sick.”

‘We used to see the sky through small squares’

Rose Khwais, who was among the Palestinians freed on the first day of the ceasefire deal, says she became unwell due to poor conditions while she was imprisoned by Israel.

“We used to see the sky through small squares. I used to say, ‘I hope I will see the sky without these squares’,” she said in an interview after returning to her family home in occupied East Jerusalem.

“The moment they took us out of prison, I saw the mountains of Carmel and the sky,” she added.

“They didn’t treat us well. There was no medical treatment. I had symptoms of a stroke, liquid around the heart, and also blood pressure problems. I wasn’t afraid of the illnesses, I was worried that my family would know that I got sick.”

Sister of freed journalist says she suffered medical neglect in Israeli prison

The sister of journalist Rula Hassanein, who is among the first group of Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons, has told Al Jazeera that she is suffering from “severe exhaustion” and needs to be transferred to a hospital for treatment.

Hassanein, who is an editor for the Ramallah-based Wattan Media Network, was arrested by Israeli forces without explanation on March 19, 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

“My sister suffered from medical neglect in prison, which negatively affected her health,” Hassanein’s sister said.

After her arrest, Hassanein was brought before an Israeli military court, inside Israel’s Ofer military prison, and charged with incitement on social media over posts that reportedly included retweets on X and her expressing her frustrations over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

The CPJ had called for Hassanein’s immediate release, and expressing concern about the health of her then-nine-month-old daughter while she was in prison.

Prisoners’ poor health reflects harsh conditions in Israeli prisons

Basil Farraj, a researcher from Birzeit University, attended the handover of Palestinian prisoners from Ofer Prison and the joyous reunions with family members early this morning.

“We have seen prisoners coming out of the busses 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,” 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.”

He said some relatives of prisoners living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem were contacted by Israeli officials and told not to celebrate when their freed family members arrived home.

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.”

Ceasefire brings relief but end to war in Gaza ‘still not guaranteed'

There certainly is a long way to go. So this is the first day – three captives are released. Saturday is day seven in which four captives will be released. Then every week following that, three captives will be released until the sixth and final week of phase one in which 14 Israeli captives will be released at once.

But around day 16 of these 42 days, that’s when negotiations for phase two will start. It’s a little bit more complicated because there are measures that the Israeli government previously said were non-negotiables – like withdrawing from key areas like Netzarim and the Philadelphi Corridor, and throughout the Gaza Strip. So there are these negotiations that are going to have to restart about phase two.

Netanyahu says that he has the right to go back to the fighting if the terms are not what he wants. If Hamas violates the ceasefire. Everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what’s going to happen. This ceasefire came as a sigh of relief but an end to the war is still not guaranteed.


_{A man sits on a lounge chair atop a heavily-damaged building along Saftawi street in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Monday.}

First night in Gaza ‘without fear of Israeli missile strikes’

People here are spending their first night in more than a year without fear of Israeli missile strikes.

Without fear they won’t make it until the morning.

Though the new day might bring a glimmer of hope that this fragile ceasefire will become a permanent peace, it will also reveal the monumental task of rebuilding lives shattered by Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip.

_{People walk towards their homes through the destroyed streets of Gaza City on Sunday.}

Israeli troops shoot and injure teen in Gaza, witnesses say

The Israeli military shot and injured a Palestinian teenager in central Gaza on Monday, the day after the ceasefire went into effect, according to journalists working with CNN.

In a statement, the Israeli military said that troops fired “warning shots” toward people in several areas in Gaza after they were identified approaching soldiers. It said that it was operating in accordance with the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that came into effect on Sunday.

Witnesses said the teenager was part of a group of Palestinians who flocked to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza to inspect damaged homes. Videos showed people attempting to treat the teenager, who was conscious.

The ceasefire deal stipulates that the Israeli military would withdraw away from densely populated areas. Thousands of displaced Palestinians have been returning to inspect damage inflicted on their homes during the war.

“The IDF is operating in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, will prevent any disturbances, and will keep to the defensive lines as agreed,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

_{A general view of the heavily damaged and partially collapsed buildings at Bureij refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Monday}

Hope mixed with grief as ceasefire enters second day in Gaza

The end of the first day of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has sparked a wave of hope. But at the same time, it is mixed with grief for families who have lost their loved ones.

There have been significant developments in the past 24 hours.

We have been closely monitoring the flow of aid supplies to the Strip, and yesterday we saw dozens of humanitarian convoys carrying fuel and essential, life-saving humanitarian needs, including food and water.

Approximately 300 humanitarian aid trucks have been sent to the north of the territory, which has been cut off from essential basic services and supplies.

At the same time, families are trying to cope with the situation under the hum of the Israeli drones that we can clearly hear at the moment on the ground.

Israel’s ‘structural genocide’ will only end when military, diplomatic support is cut: Analyst

Pietro Stefanini, political analyst and researcher at the University of Edinburgh, said while there is a relief that a ceasefire deal has been reached in Gaza, the cessation of fighting does not end “the structural genocide” that Palestinians have faced since 1948.

“It has really been one of the most intense genocidal wars in recent history,” Stefanini told Al Jazeera.

“We are now at a point where over 90 percent of housing units have been destroyed or damaged, which means that at least 80,000 homes have been rendered uninhabitable. Schools, universities, hospitals, health centres. No sector has been spared from the almost total destruction,” Stefanini said.

“What we have seen in the past is that Israel causes massive destruction and pays no consequences,” he said, adding that to “break this cycle”, support for Israel must end.

“If international governments are serious about wanting to help rebuild Gaza, they must first create the conditions that prevent Israel from – in the future – attacking what may be rebuilt,” Stefanini said.

“One way to do that would be to fund the reconstruction while also cutting the massive economic, military and diplomatic support that Israel is provided.”

Gaza’s traumatised children will need more than aid brought in on trucks: UNICEF

Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson with the UN’s agency for children, UNICEF, said the challenges ahead are “tremendous” in terms of the provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

And when it comes to saving the lives of children in Gaza amid the total deprivation that they have faced, “a ceasefire on its own isn’t going to take that suffering away”, Bollen told Al Jazeera.

“Some of the aid that children in Gaza need is not aid that we can bring in on trucks. Every single child in Gaza today is deeply, deeply scarred and traumatised by what they’ve witnessed,” Bollen said.

“They’ve gone through things that no child should ever have to witness,” she said.


_{Palestinians mourn the death of their relatives who were killed in an Israeli air strike on their shelter in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on January 14}

Palestinians returning to old neighbourhoods find ‘no signs of life’

Following the implementation of the ceasefire deal yesterday, families have started to emerge from their evacuation shelters and open-air encampments and head back to check on what is left of their homes and businesses.

They have returned to Rafah, to the eastern areas of the Gaza Strip, and to Jabalia refugee camp.

They have found nothing but destruction, and described the scale of the damage to be incredibly pervasive.

Apparently, families were planning to move their makeshift tents from their evacuation centres to their homes and to build on the remnants of their destroyed buildings.

But we have heard from many that they will return to their makeshift tents because there are simply no signs of life in the areas where they used to live.


_{Palestinians return to their homes following the start of a ceasefire in Rafah, Gaza, on Sunday.}

Video shows Israel’s destruction of agricultural greenhouses in Rafah

Palestinian activist Hassan Eslayeh has shared a video on Instagram, showing the aftermath of Israeli attacks that destroyed agricultural greenhouses in the Musbah area, north of Rafah city.

The video verified by Sanad, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, shows the area in southern Gaza transformed into barren land.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFCSKYxNnLI

Destruction at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israeli attack


<sub>Kamal Adwan Hospital endured months of Israeli fire and raids


The hospital was the last major health facility operational in northern Gaza before it was besieged and destroyed by Israeli forces


The medical facility was also a refuge for hundreds of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed</sub>

Over 630 aid trucks enter Gaza on first day of ceasefire but still ‘no time to lose’: UN

More than 630 trucks transporting humanitarian supplies entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with at least 300 of them travelling to the territory’s besieged and bombed north, the UN’s aid chief Tom Fletcher said.

But the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian relief also warned that there is still “no time to lose” in getting aid into Gaza.

“After 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering,” Fletcher said on social media.

_{Trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrive in the Gaza Strip on Sunday}

Palestine Red Crescent sends aid trucks, builds shelters in Gaza

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has trucks waiting in Jordan and Egypt as well as the occupied West Bank loaded with food, water, tents, and medical supplies.

Spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh said there are no firm numbers on how many trucks have entered the Gaza Strip, but said the organisation is coordinating with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Egyptian Red Crescent, and Jordanian Red Crescent.

She said healthcare is a priority after most of it “collapsed” because of the 15-month war.

“The medical supplies and medications, these will be going to support the work of the Palestine Crescent at our hospitals and medical points in addition to a new field hospital we are currently establishing in Gaza in order to support the people there, especially as the healthcare system in northern Gaza has collapsed,” Farsakh told Al Jazeera, speaking from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“The majority of hospitals were taken out of service, and now there’s expectation that thousands of families will be going back to Gaza City and the north, and we need to be prepared to provide healthcare services for the displaced families there.”

Gaza’s first responders scour debris for 10,000 missing bodies

Gaza’s civil defence agency has provided an update on the situation in the besieged Strip:

47,035 Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza

At least 47,035 Palestinians have been killed and 111,091 injured in Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. Gaza’s Health Ministry said in the past 24 hours 60 people were killed and another 62 bodies were recovered.

Earlier, Gaza’s emergency rescue agency said the search is now on through the vast debris of downed buildings for an estimated 10,000 buried bodies.

Remains of 97 bodies recovered in Rafah city: Medical sources

Earlier we reported that 47 bodies have been found in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, and transferred to the European Gaza Hospital.

Medical sources now tell Al Jazeera that the corpses of 97 Palestinians have now been recovered from various areas in the destroyed city since the ceasefire took effect on Sunday.

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said the search for an estimated 10,000 bodies buried in rubble since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza continues on the second day of the truce.

‘War of extermination’: Returning residents dismayed by destruction

Displaced Gaza resident Mohamed Gomaa lost his brother and nephew in Israel’s 15-month war. He expressed dismay over the level of destruction.

“It was a big shock and the amount [of people] feeling shocked is countless because of what happened to their homes. It’s destruction, total destruction. It’s not like an earthquake or a flood, no no, what happened is a war of extermination,” said Gomaa.

More than 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 111,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan lies in ruins after Israeli forces withdraw

Palestinian activists are now able to take some aerial footage of more neighbourhoods across the Gaza Strip that have been destroyed by the Israeli military.

The video below, verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad, shows how most buildings are razed in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood.

It is located northwest of Rafah city in the southern part of the enclave, and is the site of repeated Israeli ground assaults and air strikes. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Tal as-Sultan.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFC89AoM7iY

Israeli drone wounds 3 in Rafah despite ceasefire: Report

Three injured people from an Israeli drone attack arrived at the European Hospital in southern Gaza, Wafa reports quoting an unnamed medical source.

The attack by a quadcopter occurred while Palestinians checked on their homes in Rafah city, it said. The incident came on the second day of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, which has largely held so far.

Two civilians killed by Israeli sniper fire in Rafah

Two Palestinian civilians, one of them a teenage boy, were killed by Israeli snipers in southern Gaza’s Rafah, according to the Wafa news agency.

It cited medical sources as saying that they were killed in the central and southern areas of Rafah city despite the ceasefire. Eight Palestinians, including children, have also been reportedly injured so far today as a result of Israeli gunfire in Rafah.

Hamas celebrates release of prisoners

Hamas has issued a new statement on the release of the Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Here are some of its key points:

Hamas not being eliminated ‘very embarrassing for Netanyahu’

Mohamad Elmasry, a media studies professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says Israeli media are now focusing on Netanyahu’s handling of the war on Gaza.

“They’re calling this a spectacular failure,” he told Al Jazeera. “Back in April, Netanyahu said, ‘We are one step away from eliminating Hamas.’ Then in June he doubled down on that and said, ‘We’re almost there. We almost eliminated Hamas.’

“And now he has to watch, on all the TV screens, Hamas fighters dressed in their fatigues escorting Israeli captives to their vehicles.

“He’s watching as Hamas will continue to govern Gaza and oversee the security situation, the humanitarian aid situation, and all elements of this ceasefire. Hamas has not been eliminated, and this is very embarrassing for Netanyahu.”