A cease-fire agreement between Israel and terrorist group Hamas began Sunday with the release of three Israeli hostages, in exchange for some 90 Palestinian prisoners in.

Gazan brothers are killed days after the ceasefire was announced, as a tense Middle East awaits more hostages releases this weekend and more violence in Israel's bloody West Bank operation

a senior Hamas official told AFP. International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric called on all sides to "adhere to their commitments to ensure the next operations can take place safely". - 'Rise again' - UN relief chief Tom Fletcher ...

The first three Israeli hostages released from Gaza have been handed over in a test of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas says Palestinians will ‘rise again’ as freed UK hostage ‘returns to life’ - Emily Damari makes emotional first comments as she is among first hostages released by Hamas under Gaza ceasefire deal

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The first three hostages were released from Gaza and the first Palestinian prisoners were freed from Israeli custody as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold following 15 months of war, with mixed emotions and more difficult steps ahead over the next six weeks.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — After 15 months of collective grief and anxiety, three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity 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 Sunday.

The deal, mediated by the United States, offered a glimmer of hope in a conflict that has taken an immense human toll.

"Hamas is backing out of the explicit understandings ... U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said aid agencies have been mobilizing supplies in preparation for a ceasefire to scale up deliveries ...

Asharq Al Awsat The war in Gaza has seen children killed, starved, frozen to death, orphaned and separated from their families, the UN humanitarian chief says. “A generation has been traumatized,” Tom Fletcher told a UN Security Council meeting called by Russia on Thursday about the war's impact on Gaza's youngest residents.

In the days since the fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Israeli soldiers and vehicles were fanned out in the muddy streets Thursday as displaced Palestinian families left the area — some carrying suitcases, pets and other belongings.

Thousands of Gazans have begun to travel back to the homes they evacuated earlier in the war. Palestinians in Gaza have said they slept peacefully for the first time in more than a year, without the fear of being bombed, following the start of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.