France will continue its efforts to secure the release of two French-Israeli hostages held by Hamas, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told BFM TV on Monday.
“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding France had “no news on their health status nor on the terms of their detention”.
Gaza Ceasefire Day 1
Hamas released three Israeli hostages and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, on the first day of a ceasefire suspending a 15-month-old war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East.
French-Israeli nationals Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the draft Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
The truce allowed Palestinians to return to bombed-out neighbourhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid.
Elsewhere in Gaza, crowds cheered Hamas fighters who emerged from hiding.
Celebrations To Welcome Palestinian Prisoners’s Arrival
Fireworks were launched in celebration as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank, where thousands of people waited to welcome them.
Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas.
Emotional Reunion Of Hostages With Families
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis cheered and wept in a square outside the defence headquarters as a live broadcast from Gaza showed three women hostages getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by Hamas fighters.
The Israeli military said Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari had been reunited with their mothers and released a video showing them in apparent good health.
Damari lost two fingers when she was shot and abducted.
She smiled and embraced her mother as she held up a bandaged hand.
Message From Netanyahu
“I would like you to tell them: Romi, Doron and Emily – an entire nation embraces you. Welcome home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a commander by phone.
At Sheba Medical Center, the women were reunited with their families in long embraces that went from tears to laughter.
A smiling Damari was draped in an Israeli flag.
They were among more than 250 people abducted and 1,200 killed in a Hamas raid on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has said.
Death And Devastation
More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks, according to medical officials in Gaza.
Nearly the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is homeless.
Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.
(With inputs from Reuters)
