Live updates: Gaza ceasefire in effect, Israel says, as hostage release countdown begins

The Israeli Ministry of Justice released on Friday a list of 250 Palestinian prisoners expected to be released as part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Under the terms of the deal, Palestinian prisoners are only expected to go free after a 72-hour period, by the end of which all remaining Israeli hostages, living and dead, are to be released. That 72-hour period ends on Monday afternoon in Israel. 

An Israeli official told CBS News on Friday that Hamas would release all the remaining hostages by noon local time on Monday, which would be 5 a.m. Eastern. 

The Rafah crossing from southern Gaza into Egypt will reopen on Tuesday in coordination with European Union authorities and the White House, the Italian Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. 

“The Rafah crossing, on October 14, 2025, in compliance with the Trump agreement, in coordination between the European Union and the parties, will be opened alternately in two directions: exit towards Egypt and entry towards Gaza,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in the statement. 

Crosetto also said that operations for the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners would begin Sunday. 

The EU Border Assistance Mission at Rafah — a civilian mission that provides a neutral third party presence on the Gaza-Egypt border —  will be present to monitor the border’s reopening, the defense minister said.

CBS News’ team in Gaza reported Friday that displaced Gazans had begun returning to northern parts of the war-torn enclave, as the Israeli military partially withdrew its forces in line with the ceasefire agreement. 

Displaced Palestinians were seen traveling up Al Rasheed road, the main artery along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. 

Eyewitnesses reported seeing full-scale destruction in Gaza City, where Israeli forces had been conducting ground operations right up until Friday morning when the ceasefire took effect. 

Witnesses told CBS News that extensive damage was visible in neighborhoods across Gaza City, and in Al-Shati Refugee Camp on the city’s western side.

International Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric said Friday that the return of hostages and Palestinian prisoners must be carried out “safely and with dignity” 

“ICRC teams in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank will support its implementation by helping to return hostages and detainees to their families. We are also ready to help return human remains so families can mourn their loved ones with dignity,” Spoljaric said. “The ceasefire must hold. Lives depend on it.” 

An Arab diplomat and a source familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel newspaper that Hamas had agreed during talks in Egypt not to hold public ceremonies during the handover of hostages to Israel, as it had done during previous releases.

Gal Hirsch, the Hostage and Missing Persons Coordinator for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, told CBS News on Thursday that an international team would be established to locate missing hostages “in the coming days.” 

Hamas had said in a statement last week that it had agreed to the release of all Israeli hostages — living and dead — provided “that appropriate field conditions are ensured for the exchange process.”

Israeli officials have said it is believed that only 20 of the 48 remaining hostages in Gaza are still alive. 

President Trump’s senior envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday in a social media post that the U.S. military’s Central Command had “confirmed that the Israeli Defense Forces completed the first phase withdrawal to the yellow line at 12PM local time,” adding that the “72 hour period” for Hamas to release all remaining Israeli hostages “has begun.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel is “tightening the noose around Hamas from all sides,” and vowed that Gaza would be demilitarized following the Israeli government’s approval of a peace plan to end the war. 

“Hamas will disarm and Gaza will be demilitarized. If this can be achieved the easy way, all the better; if not, it will be achieved the hard way,” Netanyahu said, addressing reporters. 

The Israeli leader defended his record in prosecuting the war in Gaza, which has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities. 

“Anyone who claims that this hostage deal was always on the table is simply not telling the truth. Hamas never agreed to release all the hostages while we remained deep inside the Strip. It agreed only when the sword was on its neck, and that sword is still there,” Netanyahu said. 

An Israeli security source told CBS News on Friday that 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were set to enter Gaza in the coming days as the ceasefire takes hold.

The trucks will be from United Nations agencies, as well as other approved international organizations, the private sector and donor countries, the security source said. 

The aid will mainly consist of “food, medical equipment, shelter equipment, as well as fuel to operate essential systems and cooking gas.”

“Residents will be allowed to leave through the Rafah Crossing in coordination with Egypt, after security approval by Israel and under the supervision” of a European Union delegation,” the source told CBS News. 

A spokesperson for the U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told CBS News Friday that an expanded flow of aid had not yet been allowed into the war-torn Palestinian enclave. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, also said there had been no increase in the flow of aid into Gaza early on Friday.

Large plumes of smoke billowed into the skies above Gaza on Friday morning, and CBS News’ Debora Patta said Israeli bombs continued to fall on the Palestinian territory right up until the final hours before the military said the ceasefire had taken effect.

Israeli officials had said on Thursday that the ceasefire would take effect immediately upon the government’s approval of the deal, which came late Thursday evening, but the explosions continued for hours after that.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in an Arabic language statement directed at residents of Gaza on Friday that the “Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will remain stationed in designated areas within the Gaza Strip.”

“Do not approach IDF forces in these areas until further notice. Approaching these forces puts you at serious risk,” the spokesperson said. 

An Israeli official told CBS News that Hamas would release all outstanding hostages by noon local time on Monday, which would be 5 a.m. Eastern. 

President Trump said Thursday that all of the remaining Israeli hostages, including the bodies of deceased hostages held in Gaza, would likely be released “Monday or Tuesday” as part of the peace deal. 

Israeli officials believe there are still 48 people held captive in Gaza, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

The Israeli military said Friday that a ceasefire in Gaza came into effect at noon local time (5 a.m. Eastern)  and that Israeli troops had begun withdrawing from parts of Gaza as part of the first phase of President Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the two-year war and bring home the remaining Israeli hostages.

“Since 12:00, IDF troops began positioning themselves along the updated deployment lines in preparation for the ceasefire agreement and the return of hostages,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Friday.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told CBS News’ partner network BBC News that Israeli troops would withdraw to a line leaving them in control of 53% of Gaza in the first phase of the plan. 

President Trump had said Wednesday on his Truth Social platform that Israel “will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line” as the first step towards his 20 point peace proposal to end the war in Gaza.