Israel-Hamas war LIVE: Israel and Hamas complete 2nd day of swaps, as Gaza cease-fire holds

Six Israeli women and seven children and teenagers among those released by Hamas late on Saturday; Palestinian crowds in West Bank cheer prisoners freed by Israel.

Hamas militants on Saturday released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, from captivity in the Gaza Strip, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage of a four-day cease-fire.

The late-night exchange was held up for several hours after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement. The delay underscored the fragility of the cease-fire, which has halted a war that has shocked and shaken Israel, caused widespread destruction across the Gaza Strip, and threatened to unleash wider fighting across the region.

The war erupted on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants in Gaza burst across the border into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting some 240 others, including, women, children and older people. Israel immediately declared war, carrying out weeks of airstrikes and a ground offensive that have left over 13,300 Palestinians dead, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled territory. Roughly two-thirds of those killed in Gaza have been women and minors.

FOLLOW FOR UPDATES

Aid and respite in Gaza

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 liters (about 35,000 gallons) of fuel, just over 10% 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 U.N. 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.

Israeli army kills 6 people in West Bank: Palestinian ministry

Israeli troops killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

A 25-year-old doctor was killed early in the morning outside his home in Qabatiya, near Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups in the north of the territory, the ministry said. Another Palestinian was killed in el-Bireh, near Ramallah.

Four people were also killed by Israeli army fire in Jenin, during an incursion by a large number of armoured vehicles into the town, which was recently the scene of the deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank in almost 20 years.

Witnesses told news agency AFP on Saturday that the Israeli army was surrounding Jenin's public hospital and the Ibn Sina clinic, and that soldiers were searching ambulances.

Hamas to free more hostages as families reunite

Hamas were set Sunday to release a third group of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had received a list of hostages due to be released by Hamas on Sunday. The list was being checked by security officials, it said, and families of the hostages had been informed.

39 Palestinians released under hostage deal return home

Prison authorities in Israel announced early Sunday that they had released 39 Palestinian detainees, after Hamas freed 13 hostages under an agreement that came into force on Friday.

The freed Palestinian prisoners are all women and people under the age of 19, while the hostages released by Hamas are all women and children.

The agreement is supposed to last four days and allow the release of 50 Israelis and 150 Palestinians.

Celebrations in East Jerusalem welcoming the released

Israa Jaabis, centre, a Palestinian prisoner released by Israel, is hugged by relatives as she arrives home in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, early Sunday Nov. 26, 2023. (AP Photo)