Hamas freed 17 captives, including 13 Israelis, while Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.

The tense ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early on Sunday after the release of a second group of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and Hamas-held captives.

The exchange was delayed late on Saturday after Hamas said Israel was violating the truce agreement, which had brought the first significant pause in Israel’s relentless onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.

The deal seemed at risk of unravelling until Qatar, which mediated the agreement, announced late on Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome.

Hamas freed 17 captives, including 13 Israelis, while Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.

The four-day cease-fire, which began on Friday, was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US. Hamas is to release at least 50 captives, and Israel 150 Palestinian prisoners. All are women and children.

The pause has given Gaza’s 2.3 million people, still reeling from relentless Israeli bombardment that drove three-quarters of the population from their homes and levelled residential buildings, a few days of calm.

War-weary Palestinians in northern Gaza, where Israel’s relentless military campaign had focused, returned to the streets to survey the damage.

Entire city blocks in and around Gaza City were gutted by Israel’s carpet bombing, which hollowed out buildings and left drifts of rubble in the street.

The United Nations said the truce has made it possible to deliver much-needed aid – including food, water and medicine to the largest volume since the start of the war.

It was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (about 35,000 gallons) of fuel, just over 10 percent of daily pre-war volume, as well as cooking gas, a first since 7 October.