HAMAS released 24 of the hostages it has held in Gaza yesterday, in the first stage of a swap for Palestinians jailed in Israel that forms part of a four-day truce deal, the Red Cross said.

The hostages included 13 Israelis, 10 Thai citizens and one person from the Philippines, who had been captured during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, according to Qatar, which mediated the deal.

Footage from the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border showed a line of ambulances emerging from Gaza.

It was expected that 39 Palestinian prisoners, including 15 teenagers jailed for throwing stones, would be released in the evening.

According to advocacy group the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Israel is holding 7,200 Palestinians on charges or convictions related to security, including about 2,000 arrested since Israel’s war on Gaza began.

Families of those detained waited outside the Beitunia checkpoint, near Ramallah in the West Bank, for the prisoners to arrive.

The Israeli army fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the crowd to push them back.

Mohammed Khatib, one of those waiting, told a BBC reporter: “It’s a sign of hope for Palestinians and Israelis that the ceasefire will continue and the killing will stop.

“We would have liked this to happen without the hostages taken by Hamas, but without them, Israel would not let these people out.”

Four lorries carrying fuel and four others with cooking gas entered Gaza from Egypt under the truce agreement, as well as 200 lorries of relief supplies, according to Israel.

Since the attack began, Tel Aviv has barred all imports into Gaza.

During the truce, Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 litres of fuel per day, as hospitals, water systems, bakeries and shelters have run out of energy.

The fuel is still only a small portion of Gaza’s estimated daily needs of more than one million litres.

Israel has vowed to resume its massive bombardment of Gaza once the temporary pause ends and warned Palestinians not to return to northern Gaza, dropping leaflets in Arabic saying: “The war has not ended yet.”

Despite the truce, Israel shot dead two Palestinians and wounded 11 others as they tried to return to the north to collect belongings such as winter clothes.

Sofian Abu Amer said he had decided to risk going north to check on his home.

“We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said.

“The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die.”