A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip took effect on Sunday after a nearly three-hour delay, pausing the 15-month-old war that has brought devastation and seismic political change to the Middle East.
Residents and a medical worker in Gaza said no new fighting or military strikes were heard since about half an hour before the ceasefire was finally implemented.
Israeli airstrikes and artillery attacks killed 13 Palestinians between 0630 GMT, when the ceasefire was meant to take effect, and 0915 GMT, when it actually did, Palestinian medics said.
Israel blamed Hamas for the delay after the Palestinian militant group failed to provide a names list of the first three hostages to be released under the deal.
Hamas attributed the delay to "technical" reasons, without specifying what those were.
A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delay occurred because mediators had requested 48 hours of "calm" before the ceasefire's implementation. However, continued Israeli strikes up until the deadline had complicated the submission of the list.
Two hours after the deadline, Hamas said it had sent the list of names, which Israeli officials confirmed receiving. Hamas named the hostages it was to release on Sunday as Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari.
Israel did not immediately confirm the names.
The highly anticipated ceasefire deal could help usher in an end to the Gaza war, which began after Hamas, which controls the tiny coastal territory, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel's response has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, resulting in nearly 47,000 Palestinian deaths, as reported by Gaza-based health authorities.
The war also set off a confrontation throughout the Middle East between Israel and its arch-enemy Iran, which backs Hamas and other anti-Israeli and anti-American paramilitary groups across the region.