The truce allowed Palestinians to return to bombed-out neighborhoods to begin rebuilding their lives, while relief trucks delivered much-needed aid.

The big picture: The first hostage release since November 2023 saw Israelis Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher and dual British-Israeli national Emily Damar freed, while Israel released a group of prisoners mostly comprising women and minors in the first hostage-for-prisoner swaps to occur since the ceasefire began Sunday.

Israel is expected on Sunday to begin releasing more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the terms of the cease-fire and hostage release agreement with Hamas.

There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas will test the patience of Israel, which has said it will resume fighting unless the group is dismantled.

Ninety Palestinians should be freed from Israeli jails in exchange for three Israeli hostages released by Hamas in Gaza.

Palestinians flocked to the streets near Ramallah in the Israeli occupied West Bank on Monday (January 20) to welcome Palestinian inmates who were freed from Israeli prisons as part of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Two buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released in the Gaza ceasefire deal had to inch through a thick crowd when they at last arrived in the West Bank at 2 am Monday.After the doors opened, women hugged their relatives and cried tears of joy while throngs of people chanted,