By Miro Mamman and Avi (JO:) Ohayon

TEL AVIV/SDEROT, Israel (Reuters) -Hundreds of Israelis gathered in Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv, some cheering and a few in tears, as an enormous tv display broadcast the primary glimpse of the primary three hostages to be launched below the Gaza ceasefire deal.

They watched because the three girls – Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – received out of a automobile in Gaza Metropolis and have been handed over to Purple Cross officers amid a surging crowd that was held again by armed males in camouflaged navy gear, with inexperienced Hamas headbands.

“I’m excited, I was so nervous, that they would come safe and alive to their mothers’ hands. They were in the hands of terrorists for 471 days, three young women,” stated Shay Dickmann, whose cousin was discovered slain by her Hamas captors in August.

The Israeli navy shared video displaying their households gathered in what seemed to be a navy facility crying out in emotion as they watched footage of the handover to Israeli forces in Gaza earlier than they have been introduced again into Israel.

Photos shared by the households confirmed the three girls embracing their moms at a reception centre, with Emily Damari beaming broadly and waving a bandaged hand lacking two fingers at household on the opposite finish of a cell phone video name.

After a nerve-racking morning, ready to listen to whether or not Damari can be one of many three hostages freed on Sunday, her buddies breathed a sigh of aid.

“We didn’t have any sign of life from her for a whole year and this is the first time we are seeing her, and we are seeing her walking on her two feet and we are just waiting here to hug her and say how much we love her,” stated Man Kleinberger.

They have been later flown to a hospital in Tel Aviv in a helicopter that Israeli media reported was piloted by the pinnacle of the Israeli air power.

“Romi, Doron, Emily,” a whole nation embraces you,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDING REMAINING HOSTAGES

The release of the three women, the first of 33 hostages due to be freed from Gaza under phase one of the deal, is in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

The hostages were taken in one of the most traumatic episodes in Israel’s history, when Hamas gunmen attacked a string of communities around the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 civilians and soldiers and abducting 251 hostages – men, women, children and elderly.

But amid hope among many Israelis that the six-week ceasefire marks the beginning of the end to the war, there is deep unease about the uncertainty surrounding the remaining 94 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

“The ceasefire is one thing that I hope will work out,” said Tomer Mizrahi, in Sderot, a town in southern Israel within sight of Gaza that was attacked on Oct. 7. “However as I do know Hamas, you can not even belief them one p.c.”

Images of Hamas police emerging on to the streets as the ceasefire took effect underscored how far Israel remains from its originally stated war aims of destroying the Islamist group that has ruled in Gaza since 2007.

“I am torn,” said Dafna Sharabi from Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. “On the one hand there is a ceasefire to strengthen the forces, to relaxation from all of the insanity, on the opposite, possibly it isn’t the time,” she said.

“They need to have been eradicated, worn out,” she said. “My son was on reserve obligation for a yr over there … and he sees all of the Gazans returning, Hamas returning its forces to all of the locations he fought in.”

MEN OF MILITARY AGE NOT IN THE DEAL

After 15 months of war, Gaza lies largely in ruins. Israel’s campaign has killed almost 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry and displaced most of the two million people who live in the enclave.

But for many in Israel, the war will not be over while Hamas still stands and there have been a series of rallies opposing the ceasefire as a sell-out that abandons men of military age taken captive, who are not in the first batch of 33 hostages.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has already resigned and his fellow hardliner Bezalel Smotrich has also opposed the deal and said he has been reassured that it is not the end of the war.

The Israel Democracy Institute said its latest Israeli Voice Index, conducted just before the deal was agreed, found 57.5% of Israelis in favour of a comprehensive agreement that would see all hostages back in return for ending the war. Twelve percent supported a partial hostage release in return for a temporary ceasefire.

Amid the combination of feelings, for some, a way of exhaustion outweighed any considerations in regards to the future.

“We have been waiting for this for a long time. We wanted it to be an absolute victory, I hope we get that absolute victory,” stated Shlomi Elkayam, who owns a enterprise in Sderot. “There are pros and cons, but in the end we are tired of it all. We are tired and we want everyone here at home.”