The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday received seven Israeli hostages from Hamas: the first of 20 survivors to be exchanged, as part of a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the two-year war in the Gaza Strip.
As per the peace deal, roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israel in return. After that, the handover of 28 more Israeli hostages from Hamas' side is expected to follow.
US President Donald Trump, who played an important part in brokering the ceasefire deal, arrived in Israel's Ben Gurion airport today.
ALSO READ | 'War is over,' says Trump as Israelis and Palestinians await hostage-prisoner swap
“The war is over, OK?” Trump had told reporters travelling with him on the Air Force One, adding that he felt the ceasefire would hold because people were "tired of it (war)".
Meanwhile, the devastated Gaza Strip continues to await vital aid, because the ceasefire is merely a stop in hostilities as the humanitarian crisis continues.
"We still have a famine to fight and diseases are spreading, so we really need that scale-up (of aid deliveries) to happen quickly and efficiently," UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told The Guardian.
In that regard, hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid are expected to begin entering Gaza from Egypt. Around 400 trucks had already been lined up on Sunday. Israeli authorities added that the number of trucks per day would rise to 600, under the deal, as per an Associated Press report.
"I am so excited. I am full of happiness. It's hard to imagine how I feel this moment. I didn't sleep all night," said Viki Cohen, the mother of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, as she travelled to Reim, an Israeli military camp where the transferred hostages will be brought, as per a Reuters report.
The terms of the peace deal will now be formalised at a global peace summit in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh, co-chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Trump.
