Gazan brothers are killed days after the ceasefire was announced, as a tense Middle East awaits more hostages releases this weekend and more violence in Israel's bloody West Bank operation

Hamas says Palestinians will ‘rise again’ as freed UK hostage ‘returns to life’ - Emily Damari makes emotional first comments as she is among first hostages released by Hamas under Gaza ceasefire deal

The first three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over in a test of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The first three released hostages, Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, returned home to Israel after Hamas fighters handed them over to the Red Cross in a bustling square in Gaza City, surrounded by gunmen in fatigues and balaclavas.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — After 15 months of collective grief and anxiety, three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold Sunday.

The first three hostages released from Gaza have arrived in Israel, the military announced Sunday, hours after the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold. Their mothers were waiting to meet them.

The deal, mediated by the United States, offered a glimmer of hope in a conflict that has taken an immense human toll.

"Hamas is backing out of the explicit understandings ... U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said aid agencies have been mobilizing supplies in preparation for a ceasefire to scale up deliveries ...

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect on Sunday morning. Hostages held in the strip and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will be freed in the first phase of the deal. Meanwhile,

In the days since the fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Israeli soldiers and vehicles were fanned out in the muddy streets Thursday as displaced Palestinian families left the area — some carrying suitcases, pets and other belongings.

Asharq Al Awsat The war in Gaza has seen children killed, starved, frozen to death, orphaned and separated from their families, the UN humanitarian chief says. “A generation has been traumatized,” Tom Fletcher told a UN Security Council meeting called by Russia on Thursday about the war's impact on Gaza's youngest residents.

Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Gaza as guns fell silent. Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” to watch news of the returnees.