Israel-Hamas ceasefire latest: Ceasefire begins as Israelis wait for hostages

An Israeli spokesperson has said in a news conference that Israel retains the right to continue with its war aims if Hamas does not keep its side of the deal.

“Hamas is not just Israel’s enemy – it is the enemy of the Gazan people,” the spokesperson said.

“Presidents Trump and Biden have given full backing for Israel to return to the fighting if the second phase is not effective,” said.

David Mencer added: “If there is indeed a need, Israel will return to fighting with great force. We will not give up until all the goals of this war are met.”

On the release of the hostages, the official also said Israel could not confirm their release until they were back on Israeli soil.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday it was important that the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas had finally been implemented and that remaining hostages are released.

Speaking on the sidelines of a townhall meeting in the city of Schwalbach, Scholz said the release of hostages held by Hamas “should be used for a peaceful development, a perspective in which a Palestinian state can coexist peacefully with Israel.”

A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza is on its way to collect Israeli hostages from Hamas, an official involved in the operation told Reuters on Sunday.

Separately, Israeli Channel 12 reports that the process of returning the hostages has begun.

The three hostages have been named as Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher and Romi Gonen.

The streets in the shattered Gaza City in the north of the territory were already busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones. Several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.

Gaza City resident Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, sheltering with his family in Khan Younis, said the scene of destruction in his home city was “dreadful”, adding that while the ceasefire may have spared lives it was no time for celebrations.

“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time that we hug one another and cry,” Abu Ayham said via the same app.

Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings in the hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect. The World Food Programme said they began to cross on Sunday morning.

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.

The last remaining British national being held in Gaza has been named by Hamas as one of three hostages set to be freed on Sunday.

British-Israeli Emily Damari, 28, was kidnapped during the October 7 attack and has been a hostage for 470 days.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The UK Government welcomes the reports that British national Emily Damari is on the list of hostages to be released by Hamas today. We stand ready to support her upon her release.

“We urge both sides to implement all phases of the deal in full and for all hostages to be returned.”

Israel’s far-right national security minister resigned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet on Sunday to express his disapproval of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The resignation of Itamar Ben-Gvir does not threaten the ceasefire, but it does weaken Netanyahu’s governing coalition.

It was the latest act of defiance by the 48-year-old ultranationalist settler leader who transformed himself over the decades from an outlaw and provocateur into one of Israel’s most influential politicians.

In his Cabinet post, Ben-Gvir oversaw the country’s police force. He used his influence to encourage Netanyahu to press ahead with the war in Gaza and recently boasted that he had blocked past efforts to reach a ceasefire.

He also has paid multiple visits to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site — the contested hilltop compound that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque — including last month. The move, while legal, was seen as a provocation, violated a longstanding ban on Jewish prayer there, and threatened to disrupt months of sensitive negotiations.

Ben-Gvir has been convicted eight times for offences that include racism and supporting a terrorist organization. As a teen, his views were so extreme that the army banned him from compulsory military service.

His political rise was the culmination of years of efforts by the media-savvy lawmaker to gain legitimacy. But it also reflected a rightward shift in the Israeli electorate that brought his religious, ultranationalist ideology into the mainstream and diminished hopes for Palestinian independence.

The long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza has come into effect after a delay in the list of 33 Israeli hostages due to be freed threatened to derail the truce.

Fighting finally stopped after an almost three-hour delay on Sunday, which saw continued airstrikes kill eight Palestinians and injure 25 others, according to medics in Gaza.

However peace began at 9.15am UK time, with the first three hostages set to be freed after 2pm.

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Fighting in the Gaza Strip halted on Sunday as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas took effect after a brief delay, pausing a 15-month-old war that has brought devastation and seismic political change to the Middle East.

Residents and a medical worker in Gaza said they had heard no new fighting or military strikes since about half an hour before it was finally implemented.

Israeli airstrikes, artillery and tank attacks continued in northern Gaza after the initial deadline of 6:30am GMT, Gaza-based paramedics said, killing at least 13 Palestinians and wounding dozens more before the ceasefire actually took effect at 9:15am GMT.

Israel’s military said it had carried out air and artillery strikes against “terror targets”.