In a significant move for a lasting truce, Hamas handed over the first three hostages to the Red Cross under a ceasefire deal with Israel that halted fighting in Gaza after a delayed start.
Live television pictures showed three female hostages exiting a vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas men. The hostages got into vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross as the crowd of fighters chanted the name of the armed wing of Hamas.
An Israeli official told Reuters the Red Cross said the women were in good health. Earlier, Hamas had identified the first three Israeli hostages who would go free as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari.
In the Israeli occupied West Bank, buses were awaiting the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention. Hamas said the first group to be freed in exchange for the hostages includes 69 women and 21 teenage boys.
The first phase of the truce in the 15-month-old war between Israel and Hamas took effect following a three-hour delay during which Israeli forces pounded the Gaza Strip, killing 13 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The truce calls for fighting to stop, aid to be sent in to Gaza and 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still held there to go free over the six-week first phase in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
When the shooting stopped, Palestinians burst into the streets, some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives.
"I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again," Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, told Reuters via a chat app.
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