Gaza ceasefire: Hamas frees first of 20 Israeli hostages as Palestine waits for aid

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, is expected to visit Israel and Egypt later today.

“The war is over, OK?” Trump 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.

(More details are awaited.)

Middle East