GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) -- Thousands of Palestinians burst into the streets across Gaza as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives, while many rushed back to see what remained of their homes. 
Spokesman for Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, addressed the Palestinians, saying Operation Al-Aqsa Flood which preceded the Israeli war on Gaza” presented a unique example of standing up and making history”. 
“Salutations to you, people of Gaza, who created a historical epic that will be recorded as a turning point in the history of our nation,” Abu Ubaida said.
The operation, he said, saw new fronts opened against the occupying regime and a naval blockade imposed on it.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have been fighting in a situation that seems impossible based on military calculations,” Abu Ubaida said.
The spokesman also paid tribute to Iran as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansarullah and other resistance groups in Iraq for siding with Gazans and carrying out operations against the Zionist regime in solidarity with the Palestinians. 
The first three captives released from Gaza have arrived in Israel, the Zionist military announced Sunday, hours after the fragile ceasefire took hold.
Next up was the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners later Sunday. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, families and friends gathered excitedly as cars honked and people waved the Palestinian flag.
 A last-minute delay put off the truce’s start by nearly three hours and highlighted its fragility. In the interim between 8:30 a.m. and when the ceasefire took hold, Israeli fire killed at least 26 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. 
The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire should see 33 captives returned from Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees released. Zionist forces should pull back into a buffer zone inside Gaza and many displaced Palestinians should be able to return home.
There is also supposed to be a surge of humanitarian aid, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza daily, far more than Israel allowed before. The United Nations’ World Food Program said trucks started entering through two crossings after the ceasefire took hold.
Negotiations on the far more difficult second phase of this ceasefire should begin in just over two weeks. Major questions remain, including whether the war will resume after the first phase and how the rest of the captives in Gaza will be freed.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s extremist finance minister, has said that he was given assurances that the war on Gaza would continue and Israel would launch a “gradual takeover of the entire Gaza Strip”. 
In a statement on Saturday, Smotrich said Netanyahu had “decided to give the green light to a bad, catastrophic deal.”
Smotrich and his far-right Religious Zionism party voted against the ceasefire deal, but remained in the cabinet after Netanyahu reportedly agreed to a number of their demands. 
The far-right minister said that while his party could not prevent the deal, they were able “to ensure” through the cabinet and “other ways”, that the war would not end without achieving “the complete destruction of Hamas in Gaza”. 
He said that his faction had demanded and “received a commitment” that the method of war would be completely changed.
That included, said Smotrich, “through a gradual takeover of the entire Gaza Strip, the lifting of the restrictions imposed on us by the [U.S. President Joe] Biden administration, and full control of the Strip, so that humanitarian aid will not reach Hamas as it has been until now.”
Israel’s extremist security minister, meanwhile, said his Jewish
 Power faction was quitting the cabinet in protest over the ceasefire agreement. Itamar Ben-Gvir’s departure weakens prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
In a statement, Jewish Power called the ceasefire deal a “capitulation to Hamas” and denounced what it called the “release of hundreds of murderers”.
Zionist foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal with Hamas has come at a “high cost” for Israel.
Across the Gaza Strip, celebrations erupted and masked resistance fighters appeared among crowds who chanted slogans in support of them.
 “I feel alive again,” said Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year. “I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months,” she told Reuters via a chat app.
In the north of the territory, where some of the most intense Israeli airstrikes and battles took place, drone footage showed hundreds of people walking on a dusty road through a devastated landscape of crushed concrete and twisted metal.
One displaced family arriving back in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, surveyed what was left of their house, using shovels to clear the rubble of its collapsed walls. Elsewhere, displaced residents piled belongings onto rickshaws and trucks to make the trip home.
Hamas policemen, dressed in blue police uniform, deployed in some areas after months of trying to keep out of sight to avoid Israeli airstrikes.
People who had gathered to cheer the fighters chanted “Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades” - the armed wing of Hamas.
“All the resistance factions are staying in spite of (Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” one fighter told Reuters, referring to the armed wing.
“This is a ceasefire, a full and comprehensive one God willing, and there will be no return to war in spite of him.”
The ceasefire deal took effect after a nearly three-hour delay, pausing a war and giving hope to Gaza’s 2.3 million people, many of whom have been displaced several times.
The streets in the shattered Gaza City in the north of the territory were busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones.
Gaza City resident Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, sheltering with his family in Khan Younis, said the scene of destruction in his home city was “dreadful”, adding that while the ceasefire may have spared lives it was no time for celebrations.
“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time to hug one another and cry,” Abu Ayham said via the same app.
Many remembered relatives and friends killed during the war.
“We are happy we gained victory and that we will return (to our homes),” said Zakiya al-Masri, a woman in Khan Younis. “But it is not a complete joy ... We lost a lot of people.”
The highly anticipated ceasefire deal could help usher in an end to the war, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and martyred nearly 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza-based health officials.
“The war ended, but life isn’t going to be better because of the destruction and the losses we suffered,” Aya said. “But at least there will be no more bloodshed of women and children, I hope.”