US President Joe Biden said Sunday he had received confirmation that the first Israeli hostages freed under a Gaza ceasefire had been released, saying he "welcomes the ceasefire" and that the region had "fundamentally changed."

"I got a call that three hostages have been released from Hamas and they may now have crossed the border from Gaza into Israel," Biden said at a news conference on the sidelines of an event he attended at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina.

He confirmed that among the hostages to be released from Gaza are American citizens, saying, "The ceasefire agreement in Gaza that is being implemented today is the same proposal that I put forward last May."

The US President revealed that about 700 aid trucks will enter the Gaza Strip today.

Biden confirmed that the agreement was finally reached "thanks to US-backed Israeli military pressure on Hamas and other Iranian proxies," without giving any details.

In his first comments since the first three hostage releases under the deal were carried out, the president, who has less than a day left in office, addressed what he said was criticism of his diplomatic approach from those who believed it would lead to a wider regional war.

Biden said he listened to his critics but ultimately concluded that abandoning the course he was taking — which saw broad support for the Israeli government — would not lead to a ceasefire, but would also lead to the regional war he says his critics feared.

On Wednesday, the day the ceasefire agreement was announced in Gaza, the US President considered that it “came as a result of several factors,” saying that it was “not only a result of the intense pressures that Hamas was subjected to, the changing regional equation after the ceasefire in Lebanon, and the weakening of Iran, but also a result of the persistent and strenuous American diplomatic efforts.”

He spoke briefly about the current situation in Lebanon and Syria, saying, "Lebanon is now without Hezbollah's leadership, Iran is now at its weakest in decades, and Syria is now without Assad."