Ceasefire goes into effect in Gaza : NPR

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a ceasefire between Israel’s military and Hamas has begun.

The Israeli government announced the ceasefire with Hamas took effect at 11:15 local time (4:15 am US ET) — around three hours after the originally scheduled time for hostilities to cease.

The ceasefire was supposed to have gone into effect at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, but before then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel did not consider the terms of the agreement valid and enforceable until Hamas had handed over a list of the names of hostages to be released today.

Under the agreement, Hamas was supposed to hand them over on Saturday. They did eventually, and as of 2:30 p.m. local time, the ceasefire appeared to be holding.

A statement issued on Telegram after that initial deadline by the Al Qassem Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, identified three Israeli women the group would release on Sunday, part of the group of nearly 100 hostages still believed to be held by Hamas.

The Israeli government confirmed it had received a list of hostages, and that family members were being notified.

Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing families of people held hostage, released the names of the three Israeli women expected to gain their freedom back today.

The three hostages to be released Sunday are Romi Gonen, 24, who was kidnapped at the Nova music festival that Hamas militants stormed on Oct. 7, 2023; Emily Damari, a British-Israeli citizen who was abducted the same day by militants attacking Kfar Aza, a small Israeli community — known as a kibbutz — close to Gaza; and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, who was also taken from Kfar Aza.

According to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Gonen “loves dancing, traveling, and enjoying life. Friends and family describe her as energetic, funny, family-oriented, and full of life.”

Friends of Damari describe her as “well-loved and popular, a friend to everyone. Emily enjoys barbecuing, karaoke nights, and loves hats,” according to the same statement. She was abducted along with her friends Gali and Ziv Berman, who remain in captivity.

Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse, according to the group’s statement, and “has cared for animals since childhood, when she helped at the school’s petting zoo. She loves sports, especially running, and goes for early morning runs around the kibbutz every Saturday.” The group said her family considered her a devoted aunt to her nephews.

Throughout the morning, surveillance drones flew over Gaza and the Israeli military reported strikes in the territory. NPR confirmed that a jeep belonging to the Al Qassem Brigades was struck.

The spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defense, Mahmoud Basal, said Israeli attacks had killed a total of 19 people across various parts of the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning.

The Israeli military also said it carried out a special operation alongside the country’s domestic intelligence service that helped recover the body of an infantry soldier called Oron Shaul. He had been killed during clashes with Hamas in 2014. The group is still holding 97 abductees inside Gaza. Most of those were seized on Oct. 7, 2023, but others were taken hostage in the preceding decade, and a substantial number are no longer alive.

In Jerusalem, the far right Otzma Yehudit party released a statement saying its leader, former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, was making good on his threat to leave Netanyahu’s governing coalition, and he would take his party’s ministers with him. The statement called the ceasefire deal a “victory for terrorism.”