Middle East latest: Released Israeli hostage says she has 'returned to life'

One of the Israeli hostages freed on the first day of the Gaza ceasefire said Monday in her first comments since being released that she has “returned to life.”

Emily Damari, 28, was one of three hostages freed Sunday after spending 471 days in captivity. Officials at a hospital that received them said their condition was stable.

In an Instagram story, which was shared by Israeli media, Damari thanked her family and the large protest movement that coalesced to advocate for the release of the hostages. “Thank you thank you thank you I’m the happiest in the world,” she said.

Damari, a dual Israeli-British citizen, returned from captivity with a bandage on one hand and authorities said she had lost two fingers during Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. As she arrived to a hospital on Sunday she waved at a crowd that had gathered and footage later showed her joyfully reuniting with her family.

The three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity on Sunday 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.

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Here's the latest:

Freed Palestinian medical student says her ‘joy is limited’

BEITUNIA, West Bank — Bara’a Al-Fuqha, 22, hugged her family as she stepped off the white Red Cross bus and into the sea of cheering Palestinians welcoming the 90 Palestinians freed by Israel early Monday.

A medical student at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem before her arrest, she had spent around six months in Damon Prison. She said she was held under administrative detention — a policy of indefinite imprisonment without formal charge or trial that Israel almost exclusively uses against Palestinians. Israel says that the cases of Palestinians released as part of the exchange with Hamas for Israeli hostages all relate to state security charges.

Al-Fuqha said her conditions in Israeli prison were “terrible,” her access to food and water limited.

“It was like, when we tried to hold our heads high, the guards would do their best to hold us down,” she said.

But now, reunited with her family, al-Fuqha displayed a sense of relief and defiance.

“Thank God, I am here with my family, I’m satisfied,” she said. “But my joy is limited, because so many among us Palestinians are being tortured and abused. Our people in Gaza are suffering. God willing, we will work to free them, too.”

That reflected a wider feeling in the crowd, with many saying this release offered a small, if fleeting, moment of joy, tempered by the 15 months of death and destruction in Gaza.

UN says more than 630 trucks with humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM — United Nations humanitarian officials say that more than 630 trucks of humanitarian aid have entered the besieged Gaza Strip, in implementation of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

In a post on social media platform X, Tom Fletcher, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs said that over 630 trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, with at least 300 of them bringing humanitarian assistance into the north.

“There is no time to lose,” Fletcher wrote. “After 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering.”

The Gaza ceasefire deal, which began Sunday with an initial phase lasting six weeks, calls for the entry into Gaza of 600 trucks carrying humanitarian relief daily. Over the course of the deal’s first stage, 33 Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity in Gaza will also be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Aid workers have been scrambling to address Gaza’s dire humanitarian needs after 15 months of devastating war and tough Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries and the movement of convoys within Gaza. Lawlessness and looting by armed gangs has also been a major obstacle to aid distribution.

Before this latest Israel-Hamas war began, Gaza was under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade that allowed the entry of some 500 trucks a day carrying commercial supplies and humanitarian aid.

Hamas says delay in release of Palestinian prisoners the result of a conflict over list of names

JERUSALEM — Hamas’ office of prisoner affairs has issued a statement saying the delay in Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners was the result of a last-minute conflict over the names on the list.

Seven hours after three Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian crowds gathered outside Israel’s Ofer prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah were still waiting for the release of 90 Palestinians.

The Hamas statement said: “During the process of checking the names of the prisoners being released from Ofer prison, there was found to be one female prisoner missing.”

Hamas said that its officials were in communication with mediators and the Red Cross in hopes of pressuring Israel “to adhere to the agreed-upon list of prisoners.” It said that the issue was being resolved and it expected the buses of the released prisoners to soon depart.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the delay.

Israeli military fires projectiles and moves journalists awaiting release of Palestinian prisoners

The Israeli military has been firing projectiles and moving journalists waiting to cover the release of Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefire that began Sunday. That’s according to AP video, which showed smoke trailing from objects landing nearby.

The release of the 90 prisoners will take place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Nearly seven hours have passed since the first three hostages were released from Gaza shortly after the ceasefire began.

It is now approaching 1 a.m. local time. Israel’s military has warned Palestinians against public celebration.