Bring them home: Three hostages due to be released overnight under the ceasefire that began on Sunday

These are the faces of the first 33 Israeli hostages set to be released under the ceasefire which started on Sunday. The first three women hostages — Emily Damari, 28, pictured top right, Romi Gonen, 24, second row right, and Doron Steibrecher, 31 sixth row, far left — were due to be released into the care of the Red Cross, who will facilitate their transfer out of Gaza at midnight Sunday, WA time. About the same time, the first batch of 90 Palestinian prisoners were to be released and transferred to either the occupied West Bank or Gaza. However, there was a nerve-racking delay when the ceasefire was put off for several hours while Israel waited for Hamas to provide a list of hostages, as promised. More than 1700 prisoners are set to be freed throughout the deal. Four more Israeli hostages are expected to be released the following weekend, and another 26 spread out over the following five weeks, in the first part of the multiphase deal. Israel’s military has set up three sites on its side of the Gaza border to receive hostages and provide initial treatment. Medical teams will assess where to send them for further care, with the expectation that they will be suffering from severe weight loss, medical complications and psychological harm after 15 months of captivity, often underground. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early on Sunday that the ceasefire in Gaza would not begin until Israel had received a list of the hostages set to be released from Hamas. He reiterated the warning in a statement barely an hour before the ceasefire was set to begin on Sunday. Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons”. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been under pressure over the rise in anti-Semitism and hate speech in the country, said communities across the globe wanted the ceasefire to stay in place, despite lingering tensions. “We’re certainly hopeful, as I think the world is, that this ceasefire holds. It’s what the world has wanted to see and it is good that it has occurred and that it will come into place,” Mr Albanese said. “We want to see hostages released, we want to see proper aid be able to get to the people of Gaza, and we want Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in peace.” Aid groups were preparing to use the ceasefire to increase deliveries into Gaza, where most of the population has been displaced and faces hunger and disease. The deal calls for 600 trucks of aid to enter Gaza each day and the United Nations said 80,000 tons of food, enough to feed one million people for three months, was on standby. Egyptian authorities were intensifying activities in the area, with two ministers sent from Cairo to oversee efforts that will eventually include repairing the Rafah border crossing. Injured Palestinians will be allowed to leave Gaza through Rafah starting the second week of the deal and some Gazans permitted to return from abroad during a later phase. The ceasefire would be only the second reprieve in the war that began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel, killing more than 1200 people and taking 250 hostages back into Gaza. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion has decimated Hamas but also killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities. Israel estimates that 17,000 of them were Hamas combatants. In Australia, thousands gathered in Sydney to celebrate the ceasefire. Organiser Hash Tayeh said it was a time to celebrate, mourn and reflect for all of humanity, not just Palestinians. The ceasefire came as NSW Premier Chris Minns said he would look at strengthening hate speech laws after a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney. In the latest incident, a house once owned by Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin was set on fire and graffitied on Friday.