Israel-Hamas deal: Biden credits "extensive US diplomacy" for securing hostage release, ceasefire

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered remarks from Nantucket, MA after the release of some Israeli hostages by Hamas under a temporary ceasefire deal brokered between the two sides.

A total of 39 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails are also due to be freed while 13 Israeli hostages were released from Gaza at the end of the first day of a planned four-day truce.

Biden praised what he called "extensive U.S. diplomacy" for helping to secure the hostage release deal and the ceasefire, outlining his own efforts that morning as the first hostages were released.

Out of the first 13 Israeli hostages, there were four children and their relatives, with another five elderly women, a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

The truce has raised hopes of eventually winding down the conflict, which has flattened vast swaths of Gaza, fuelled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East.

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