Hamas has announced it would release four female soldiers held hostage for 15 months in Gaza, as part of an exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners laid out in its ceasefire agreement with Israel.

TEL AVIV — Israelis celebrated the return Sunday evening of the first wave of hostages from the Gaza Strip, hours after Israel and Hamas ' long-awaited ceasefire went into effect and spurred many displaced Palestinians to begin the journey home by foot after 15 months of brutal conflict.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel and Hamas were expected to swap more hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, the second such exchange since a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip last weekend and another test for the deal.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Tuesday, sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that he would resign on March 6 after two years and two months in office, about 10 months earlier than the standard three-year term.

Palestinian health workers say an Israeli strike on a built-up refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has killed two people as a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip entered a third day.

Tel Aviv, Israel - Recent Hamas will give the mediators on Friday the names of the four hostages who will be released on Saturday, according to Palestinian newspaper, Al-Quds, on Thursday. Citing Hamas West Bank chief Zaher Jabarin,

“To Rafah, to Rafah, inside, in Gaza,” a smiling young boy exclaims as he steered the cart. And three female hostages were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross just after 5 p.m. local time, to be taken to Israel. In Tel Aviv’s Hostages ...

Hundreds of aid trucks were beginning to enter Gaza, which was devastated by Israeli airstrikes and shelling after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border terrorist attack.

Israeli media, carrying live footage from Qatar-based Al Jazeera, is showing the first images of the first three hostages to be released

Israeli media, carrying live footage from Qatar-based Al Jazeera, showed the three women walking to Red Cross vehicles as their convoy moved through Gaza City.

The first three hostages released from Gaza have arrived in Israel, the military announced Sunday, hours after the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold. Their mothers were waiting to meet them.

Hundreds of aid trucks were beginning to enter Gaza, which was devastated by Israeli airstrikes and shelling in the 15 months after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack.