Fragile ceasefire in Gaza is back on track after delay in second hostage-for-prisoner swap

The tense cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early on Sunday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hour long delay that underscored the truce's fragility.

The exchange was delayed on Saturday evening after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement, which has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip, and a hostage crisis that has shaken Israel.

The deal seemed at risk of unravelling until Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, announced late Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome. The militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.

Thousands of people gathered in central Tel Aviv late Saturday to call for the release of all the estimated 240 people captured by Hamas in its October 7 rampage across southern Israel, which ignited the war.

They accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring them back.

Pressure from the hostages' families and lingering anger over Israel's failure to prevent the attack have sharpened the dilemma facing the country's leaders as they seek to eliminate Hamas as a military and governing power while bringing all the captives back safely.

The war has already claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians killed by Hamas in the initial attack. More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, roughly two thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The four-day cease-fire, which began on Friday, was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. Hamas is to release at least 50 Israeli hostages, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners. All are women and minors.

Israel has said the truce can be extended by an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed, but has vowed to quickly resume its offensive once it ends. Israel said early Sunday that it had received a new list of hostages slated to be released later in the day, in the third of four scheduled swaps.

The pause has given Gaza's 2.3 million people, still reeling from relentless Israeli bombardment that has driven three-quarters of the population from their homes and leveled residential areas, a few days of calm. Rocket fire from Gaza militants into Israel also went silent.

War-weary Palestinians in northern Gaza, where the offensive has focused, returned to the streets to survey the damage. Entire city blocks in and around Gaza City have been gutted by airstrikes that hollowed out buildings and left drifts of rubble in the street.

The United Nations said the truce has made it possible to scale up the delivery of food, water, and medicine to the largest volume since the start of the war. It was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (about 35,000 gallons) of fuel, just over 10 per cent of daily pre-war volume, as well as cooking gas, a first since the war began.

Aid also reached northern Gaza, for the first time in a month. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 61 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies headed there on Saturday.

The UN said it and the Palestinian Red Crescent were also able to evacuate 40 patients and family members from a hospital in Gaza City to another one in the south.

(With inputs from agencies)