Dr. Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President, said that “months of death and devastation in Gaza finally over… Time for an independent Palestinian state.”

Gargash took to X and wrote, “Months of death and devastation in Gaza finally over. Let us pray for peace. Most infuriating was hearing, ‘according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians,’ as if war & bombings do.

“Time for an independent Palestinian state.”

Palestinians burst into streets to celebrate and began returning to the rubble of bombed-out homes on Sunday after a ceasefire deal halted fighting in Gaza, while three female hostages freed by Hamas were reunited with their mothers inside Israel.

Hamas members drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting. In the north of the territory, bombed into oblivion in the war's most intense fighting, people picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis in a square outside the defence headquarters watched a live broadcast from Gaza showing the hostage release on a giant screen. The crowd cheered, embraced and wept as three female hostages could be seen getting into a Red Cross vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas fighters.

The UAE launched its largest phase of humanitarian campaign to provide relief aid to Gaza residents, in line with the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to extend all forms of assistance to Gaza's population.

The operation coincides with the announcement of a humanitarian truce, offering an opportunity to intensify relief efforts and alleviate the suffering of those affected.