One of the Israeli hostages freed on the first day of the Gaza ceasefire said Monday in her first comments since being released that she has “returned to life.”

Emily Damari, 28, was one of three hostages freed Sunday after spending 471 days in captivity. Officials at a hospital that received them said their condition was stable.

In an Instagram story, which was shared by Israeli media, Damari thanked her family and the large protest movement that coalesced to advocate for the release of the hostages. “Thank you thank you thank you I’m the happiest in the world,” she said.

Damari, a dual Israeli-British citizen, returned from captivity with a bandage on one hand and authorities said she had lost two fingers during Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. As she arrived to a hospital on Sunday she waved at a crowd that had gathered and footage later showed her joyfully reuniting with her family.

Her mother, Mandy, said in a statement later Monday that Damari was “doing much better than any of us could ever have anticipated.”

The three Israeli hostages left Hamas captivity on Sunday and returned to Israel, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jail, leaving both Israelis and Palestinians torn between celebration and trepidation as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold.

The Palestinian government says it is ready to take responsibility for running the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and is committed to managing crossing points in collaboration with the European Union and Egypt.

The Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs, Varsen Aghabekian, told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday on Gaza that the government welcomes any assistance to train and equip the Palestinian police and security forces. She also called for urgent humanitarian aid.

She expressed hope that the six-week ceasefire will lead to a final ceasefire and lay the foundations for a political track to end Israel’s occupation within a year as called for by the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest tribunal.

Israel’s political coordinator, Reut Shapir Ben Naftaly, told the council “This war will not end until every hostage is returned and Hamas’ ability to terrorize is dismantled.”

She said the Middle East stands at “a turning point” where Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon have suffered “devastating losses” and its “network of terror” including the Houthis in Yemen have faced significant setbacks.

Ben Naftaly said Israel has no interest in a conflict with Syria “but we will not tolerate a situation that endangers our civilians, allows Iran to re-establish itself in the region, and transfer weapons to Hezbollah.”

Residents of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank say Israeli settlers have rampaged through their communities and set a large fire.

Officials in Jinsafut and Al-Funduq, two villages roughly 31 miles north of Jerusalem, said that dozens of settlers had attacked homes and local businesses.

Jalal Bashir, the head of Jinsafut’s village council said that settlers had burned three houses, a nursery and a carpentry shop located on the village’s main road. Northward in Al-Funduq, Louay Tayem, head of the local council, said dozens of Israeli settlers had fired shots, thrown stones at homes and burned cars, homes and shops.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 12 people who were beaten by settlers. It gave no details on their conditions. Israel’s military said it dispersed the settlers and launched an investigation. The West Bank has seen a surge in settler rioting and violence since Oct. 7, 2023. Rights groups say that arrests for settler violence are rare, and prosecutions even rarer.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported 1,432 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in casualties or property damage in 2024 and additional attacks in and near Nablus last week.