By Maayan Lubell, Emily Rose, Nidal al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas within the Gaza Strip took impact on Sunday after a virtually three-hour delay, pausing a 15-month-old warfare that has introduced devastation and seismic political change to the Center East.
Residents and a medical employee in Gaza stated that that they had heard no new combating or navy strikes since about half an hour earlier than it was lastly carried out.
Israeli airstrikes and artillery assaults killed 13 Palestinians between 0630 GMT, when the ceasefire was meant to start, and 0915 GMT, when it truly took impact, Palestinian medics stated.
Israel blamed Hamas for the delay after the Palestinian militant group failed to offer an inventory naming the primary three hostages to be launched below the deal.
Hamas attributed the delay to “technical” causes, with out specifying what these had been.
A Palestinian official acquainted with the matter, talking on situation of anonymity, stated the delay occurred as a result of mediators had requested for 48 hours of “calm” earlier than the ceasefire’s implementation, however continued Israeli strikes proper up till the deadline had made it troublesome to ship the checklist.
Two hours after the deadline, Hamas stated it had despatched the checklist of names, and Israeli officers confirmed receipt. Hamas named the hostages it was to launch on Sunday as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari.
Israel didn’t instantly verify the names.
The extremely anticipated ceasefire deal may assist usher in an finish to the Gaza warfare, which started after Hamas, which controls the tiny coastal territory, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 individuals, in accordance with Israeli authorities.
Israel’s response has lowered a lot of Gaza to rubble and killed practically 47,000 Palestinians, in accordance with Gaza-based well being authorities.
The warfare additionally set off a confrontation all through the Center East between Israel and its arch-foe Iran, which backs Hamas and different anti-Israeli and anti-American paramilitary forces throughout the area.
HOSTAGE LIST, LAST-MINUTE ATTACKS
Forward of the ceasefire’s agreed implementation at 0630 GMT, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated it couldn’t take impact till Hamas gave the names of the hostages up for launch on Sunday.
Israeli navy spokespeople stated in separate statements on Sunday that their plane and artillery had attacked “terror targets” in northern and central Gaza, and that the navy would proceed to assault the strip so long as Hamas didn’t meet its obligations below the ceasefire.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service stated that no less than 13 individuals had been killed within the Israeli assaults and dozens wounded. Medics reported tanks firing on the Zeitoun space of Gaza Metropolis, and stated that an airstrike and tank fireplace additionally hit the northern city of Beit Hanoun, sending residents who had returned there in anticipation of the ceasefire fleeing.
An air raid siren that sounded within the Sderot space of southern Irael had been a false alarm, the Israeli navy stated in a separate assertion.
Israeli forces had began withdrawing from areas in Gaza’s Rafah to the Philadelphi hall alongside the border between Egypt and Gaza, pro-Hamas media reported early on Sunday.
The three-stage ceasefire settlement adopted months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, and got here simply forward of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Its first stage will final six weeks, throughout which 33 of the remaining 98 hostages – ladies, kids, males over 50, the in poor health and wounded – might be launched in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
They embody 737 male, feminine and teen-aged prisoners, a few of whom are members of militant teams convicted of assaults that killed dozens of Israelis, in addition to a whole bunch of Palestinians from Gaza in detention because the begin of the warfare.
The primary three are feminine hostages anticipated to be launched via the Crimson Cross on Sunday. In return for every, 30 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are to be launched.
Underneath the phrases of the deal, Hamas will inform the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC) the place the assembly level might be inside Gaza and the ICRC is anticipated to start driving to that location to gather the hostages, an official concerned within the course of instructed Reuters.
ENDING THE WAR?
U.S. President Joe Biden’s group labored carefully with Trump’s Center East envoy Steve Witkoff to push the deal over the road.
As his inauguration approached, Trump had repeated his demand {that a} deal be accomplished swiftly, warning repeatedly that there can be “hell to pay” if the hostages weren’t launched.
However what is going to come subsequent in Gaza stays unclear within the absence of a complete settlement on the postwar way forward for the enclave, which would require billions of {dollars} and years of labor to rebuild.
And though the acknowledged intention of the ceasefire is to finish the warfare totally, it may simply unravel.
Hamas, which has managed Gaza for nearly 20 years, has survived regardless of dropping its prime management and 1000’s of fighters.
Israel has vowed it is not going to enable Hamas to return to energy and has cleared massive stretches of floor inside Gaza, in a step broadly seen as a transfer in the direction of making a buffer zone that can enable its troops to behave freely towards threats within the enclave.
In Israel, the return of the hostages might ease a number of the public anger towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing authorities over the Oct. 7 safety failure that led to the deadliest single day within the nation’s historical past.
MIDEAST SHOCKWAVES
The warfare despatched shockwaves throughout the area, triggering a battle with the Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah motion and bringing Israel into direct battle with its arch-foe Iran for the primary time.
It has additionally reworked the Center East. Iran, which spent billions build up a community of militant teams round Israel, has seen its “Axis of Resistance” wrecked and was unable to inflict greater than minimal injury on Israel in two main missile assaults.
Hezbollah, whose large missile arsenal was as soon as seen as the most important risk to Israel, has seen its its prime management killed and most of its missiles and navy infrastructure destroyed.
On the diplomatic entrance, Israel has confronted outrage and isolation over the dying and devastation in Gaza.
Netanyahu faces an Worldwide Legal Courtroom arrest warrant on warfare crimes allegations and separate accusations of genocide on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice.
Israel has reacted with fury to each circumstances, rejecting the costs as politically motivated and accusing South Africa, which introduced the unique ICJ case in addition to the international locations which have joined it, of antisemitism.
