A long-awaited Gaza ceasefire starts after a delay

Displaced Palestinians flash V-sign as they return to Rafah, while a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, in Rafah, yesterday

A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took effect yesterday following an almost three-hour delay after Hamas was late to name the three hostage it plans to release.

The announcement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire began at 11:15 a.m. local time. Israel said earlier it would keep fighting until the names were handed over in accordance with the agreement.

Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons.” It said in a statement that it is committed to the ceasefire deal announced last week.

The ceasefire is set to pause the fighting after 15 months of war and see the release of dozens of hostages held by the militants in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel›s Cabinet approved the deal early on Saturday.

Brokered by mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt in months of indirect talks between the warring sides, the ceasefire is the second truce achieved in the devastating conflict.

The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel killed some 1,200 people and left some 250 others captive. Nearly 100 hostages remain in Gaza.

Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half the dead.

Yesterday, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told journalists that “both Trump and Biden have given full backing to Israel’s right to return to the fighting if it reaches the conclusion that the second stage of negotiations is ineffectual.”

Mencer adds, however, that Israel wants “all stages” of the phased ceasefire deal to come into effect. Negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase are to start just over two weeks into the first phase that began Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in a separate statement reiterated that Israel won’t stop the war until everyone returns home. He added that “we will take care to maintain the buffer zones and respond forcefully to any violation and threat.” Israeli forces are withdrawing to buffer zones inside Gaza in the first phase.

Residents of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah returned to find massive destruction following the ceasefire.

“It’s an indescribable scene. It’s like you see a Hollywood horror movie,” Mohamed Abu Taha told The Associated Press as he and his brother inspected the family home in Rafah’s Salam neighborhood. He described “flattened houses, human remains, skulls and other body parts, in the street and in the rubble.”

In London, the mother of one of the three female hostages expected to be released today [Macau time] said she was praying her daughter will return to Israel alive, adding, “I have more hope now than I’ve had in the last 15 months.”

Emily Damari, a 28-year-old British-Israeli national, was kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

“It would be the most wonderful feeling in the world if she comes back, the most wonderful feeling. But I won’t believe it until I see and feel it for myself,” her mother Mandy said in a statement released on behalf of her family. MDT/AP