Israeli officials have confirmed that Hamas carried it out The first three women were captured as the cease-fire agreement in the war-torn Gaza Strip came into effect.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Sunday evening that 24-year-old Romi Gonen, 28-year-old Emily Damari, and 31-year-old Doron Steinbrecher were handed over to the Red Cross and are “in safe hands” in Israel. .
Red Cross vehicles left Gaza City for the northern area under heavy siege by Hamas after bringing the hostages to Saraya Square as a crowd gathered.
Red Cross representatives were confirming the identities of 90 Palestinian prisoners before they were released from Israel's Ofer prison as part of a cease-fire agreement.
The ceasefire agreement is to be implemented in three phases and includes sending more aid trucks to Gaza to ease the disaster in the camp. The first phase will last 42 days as the Israeli army withdraws from parts of Gaza.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said on television that the Palestinian Authority is committed to the deal, but that its continued implementation will depend on Israel's cooperation.
A deal could have been reached a year ago and was blocked by the “bad wishes” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obeida said.
Israel's leader has insisted he will continue fighting as some right-wing lawmakers in his government, led by Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, resigned in protest. Netanyahu emphasized after the first prisoners were freed that Israel would achieve all the goals it had set for the war, which included “defeating” Hamas and freeing all the prisoners.
The United Nations and world leaders have also welcomed the end of the war, with US President Joe Biden saying “the guns in Gaza have stopped”.
Thousands of Palestinians celebrated the long-awaited cessation of hostilities that could turn things around in Gaza, after more than 15 months of Israeli attacks that have killed at least 46,913 Palestinians and left thousands missing.
Reporting from Saraya Square, Al Jazeera's Ibrahim al-Khalili described the festive scene among the crowd.
He said: “They are very happy. “Celebrations are taking place all over the world after 15 months of war that destroyed everything. This is an unforgettable moment.
The hostages are expected to be taken immediately to the Israeli military for identification, and then to a central hospital in Israel. They will be there for at least four days for psychological and medical evaluation after being reunited with their families.
The prison service in Israel, as well as the Israeli army, have been explaining this week how they are preparing for the release of the hostages.
About 250 people were captured during the Hamas war in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. About 100 prisoners are still in Gaza after some were freed at the end of 2023 or their bodies were found, although it is not known how many are still alive.
Al Jazeera has obtained a list of 90 Palestinian prisoners who will be released in exchange for three Israeli prisoners.
They are all from the West Bank, where people lived east of Jerusalem, and the list includes a few women and children.
The list includes the name of Khalida Jarrar, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the occupied West Bank. Among those on the list are at least 12 young Palestinian men, some of them under the age of 19, and minors.
According to Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, many children and young children have been arrested for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.
“We're talking about light sentences,” he said. “The list of prisoners, hundreds of names that have been released, are mostly in administrative prisons, which is a method used by Israeli law to keep people in prison indefinitely without trial. The arrests of these administrators only increase again and again.”
Hours before the suspension, Israel announced that it had recovered the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war whose remains have been there ever since.