Hamas said it had released 13 Israelis, three Thais and one Russian. The International Committee of the Red Cross also said it had successfully airlifted 17 hostages from Gaza.
Reuters TV footage showed several Palestinian prisoners also being released from Israeli jails on Sunday.
Hamas has said it wants to extend the truce if Israel takes serious steps to potentially release more Palestinian prisoners.
US President Joe Biden said he expected the truce to last as long as hostages were freed. He said he hoped Hamas would free more American hostages, but there was no certainty at this time about that possibility.
Mr Biden revealed that the 4-year-old hostage, Abigail Edan, witnessed her parents die in the October 7 attack and has been held hostage since then.
“The things the child had to witness were unimaginable.”
The four-day truce is the first pause in fighting in seven weeks since Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead and 240 hostages taken to Gaza.
In response to the attack, Israel pledged to destroy Hamas, ordered bombing of Gaza, and launched a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians were killed, and hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with security forces in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. He also said he had discussed the hostage release with Mr. Biden, and said he was willing to accept an extension of the truce if 10 more hostages were released each day.
However, Mr. Netanyahu also said that when discussing with Mr. Biden, he affirmed that when the ceasefire ends, "we will attack with full force again to aim at the goal: to destroy Hamas, ensure Gaza returns to the way it was before and of course to free all the hostages."
A farmer died
The killing of a Palestinian farmer in the central Gaza Strip has added to concerns about the fragility of the current truce.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the farmer was killed when he was attacked by Israeli forces from the east of the Maghazi refugee camp.
Hamas' armed wing said on Sunday that four of its commanders in Gaza had been killed, including the commander of the North Gaza brigade, Ahmad Al Ghandour. However, the group did not say when he died.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States have urged the sides to extend the truce beyond Monday, but it is unclear when this will happen.
Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.
Israel said the ceasefire could be extended if Hamas continued to release at least 10 hostages a day. A Palestinian source said up to 100 hostages could be freed.
Violence in the West Bank
Six of the 13 Israelis freed on Saturday were women and seven were children and teenagers. The youngest was 3-year-old Yahel Shoham, who was freed along with her mother and brother, but her father remains a hostage.
Israel has released 39 Palestinians, including six women and 33 minors, the Palestinian media agency WAFA reported.
Some Palestinians went to Al-Bireh City Square in Ramallah in the West Bank, where thousands of people greeted them.
Violence erupted in the West Bank late Saturday and early Sunday after Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including two children, and at least one gunman, local and medical sources said.
Even before the October 7 attack, the West Bank had been in turmoil, with increased Israeli military raids, a growing number of Palestinian attacks, and increased violence from Israeli settlers over the past 18 months. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, some of them in Israeli airstrikes.
Saturday’s prisoner swap followed the release of 13 Israeli hostages, including several children and elderly people, the day before. It was a deal struck by Hamas in exchange for the freedom of 39 Palestinian women and children in Israeli jails.
The four Thais released on Saturday “wanted to get clean and contact their relatives,” Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on X. He said they were all safe and had no major complications.
“I am so happy, I am so glad, I cannot describe my current feelings,” Thongkoon Onkaew said in a phone call to Reuters after his son Natthaporn, 26, was released.
Quiet days
The deal was put at risk when Hamas's armed wing said on Saturday it would delay releasing the hostages until Israel implemented the terms of the deal, including allowing trucks carrying aid into Gaza.
Qatar and Egypt, along with US President Joe Biden, spent a day negotiating to salvage the deal.
Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades asserted that Israel did not comply with the terms of the deal to release hostages based on the time spent in detention.
COGAT, Israel's civilian coordination body with the Palestinians, accused Hamas of delaying trucks carrying humanitarian aid into northern Gaza at checkpoints.
“For Hamas, the people of Gaza are not a priority.”
Many had been waiting for the release of the hostages on Saturday, and the joy of some was tempered by the fact that others were still being held.
“I feel confused because my son, Italy, is still being held by Hamas,” said Mirit Regev, mother of Maya Regev, who was released late Saturday, in a statement at the Forum of Families of Missing or Held Hostage.
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)
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