Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday handed over all 20 surviving Israeli hostages to Israel, a significant step toward ending the two-year war in Gaza, as US President Donald Trump, who helped broker the ceasefire, called it a "big day".
The Israeli military said it had received the remaining 13 hostages, after the first group of seven arrived earlier today — news that sparked cheers, hugs and tears among the thousands gathered in Tel Aviv's Hostage Square.
Radio Free Europe (RFE) reports that among the released hostages is Serbian citizen Alon Ohel.
"This is a great day. This is a new beginning," Trump said upon arriving in Israel, where he was given a hero's welcome and addressed the Knesset before traveling to Egypt for a summit aimed at creating the conditions for lasting peace in Gaza.
When asked if the two-year war in Gaza was over, he replied: "Yes."
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"I'm so excited. I'm so happy. It's hard to describe how I feel at this moment. I haven't slept all night," said Viki Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, as she traveled to the Reim military camp, where the hostages will be transferred.
The first photographs of the six freed Israeli hostages, distributed by the Israeli army, showed them all standing.
Reuters reports that Palestinian prisoners and detainees released by Israel as part of the deal arrived in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank with shaved heads, and some of them looked very exhausted.
Reuters previously reported that buses carrying freed Palestinian prisoners, as part of a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement, also left Israeli prisons for the Palestinian enclave.
Reuters also reported that an official involved in the operation said today that Israel would deport 154 freed Palestinian detainees out of Israeli territory and the Palestinian territories.
Nearly 2.000 Palestinian detainees and convicts held in Israeli prisons are due to be released today.
Leaders' meeting on lasting peace
In Gaza, about a dozen masked and black-clad armed men, apparently members of the armed wing of Hamas, arrived at Nasser Hospital, where a stage and chairs had been set up to welcome the freed Palestinian prisoners.
"I hope these images can mark the end of this war. We have lost friends and relatives, we have lost our homes and our city," said Imad Abu Judat, a 57-year-old father of six from Gaza, as he followed the preparations for the handover on his phone.
The releases are one of the most important parts of the first phase of a ceasefire agreement reached last Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Trump and more than 20 world leaders will meet later in the day.
Trump landed in Israel shortly after the release of the first group of hostages was announced. He will address parliament and then travel to Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting for him at the airport as Air Force One approached the runway, smiling and chatting with the American ambassador.
Trump will become only the fourth US president to address the Israeli Knesset, after Jimmy Carter in 1979, Bill Clinton in 1994 and George W. Bush in 2008.
Two years of conflict
Two years of war have left Gaza in ruins, with almost all its inhabitants homeless, causing a humanitarian catastrophe of enormous proportions. The conflict has also reshaped the Middle East through Israel's confrontations with Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis.
Near the Israeli military camp Reim, where the hostages will be brought before being transported to hospitals, people lined the road, waving Israeli flags on which a yellow ribbon — a symbol of the memory of the hostages — was intertwined with a blue Star of David.
In Israeli prisons, about 1.966 detainees boarded buses, and most were due to be released today at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, an official involved in the operation said.
In a statement released today, Hamas' armed wing reaffirmed its commitment to respecting the terms and time frame of the agreement, noting that this depends on Israel's consistency in implementing what was agreed. The statement said that Israel agreed to a ceasefire and prisoner exchange after failing to free the hostages through military means.
The main United Nations relief agency in Gaza, UNRVA, has appealed to Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to reach the territory.
The conflict began with a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which about 1.200 people in Israel were killed and 251 people were taken hostage. Since then, Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives have devastated Gaza, killing more than 67.000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health officials.
Hostages handed over to the Red Cross
Reuters reported earlier today that an official involved in the operation said Hamas had freed the first seven surviving Israeli hostages.
Reuters reported that this was done as part of the initial phase of a ceasefire agreement that Trump helped broker, aimed at ending the conflict in Gaza.
Hamas confirmed that it had handed over the first group of seven hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross, an official told Reuters.
The agency also reported that the Israeli military announced that seven hostages had been handed over to the Red Cross and were on their way to Israeli forces.
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which represents the biggest step towards ending the two-year war, aims to pave the way for a lasting peace in line with a 20-point plan proposed by Trump.
The ceasefire and exchange of hostages and prisoners followed a two-year war that had developed into a regional conflict, drawing countries such as Iran, Yemen and Lebanon into the conflict, while deepening Israel's international isolation and changing the political landscape of the Middle East. Of the 28 Israeli hostages — 26 dead and two whose fate is still unknown.
Under the agreement, Israel is supposed to release nearly 2.000 Palestinian detainees and convicts from its prisons.
Hundreds of citizens also gathered at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, chanting slogans, waving Israeli flags and holding posters with pictures of hostages.
"The war is over," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew from Washington to Israel on Sunday. Asked about the outlook for the region, he added: "I think things will normalize."
Trump will be awarded Israel's highest civilian honor later this year, Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced.
Hamas' armed wing announces names of 20 Israeli hostages it will release from Gaza
The armed wing of Hamas announced this morning the names of 20 Israeli hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip, whose release is expected as part of an exchange with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Beta news agency reports.
"As part of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement, the Al-Qassam Brigades decided to release the following Zionist prisoners," the armed group said in a statement, publishing a list of the names of 20 hostages who had previously been presumed alive.
Vehicles from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are on their way to an agreed location in the northern Gaza Strip to pick up hostages that Hamas will release, the Israeli military said, Beta reported.
"The Red Cross is on its way to the meeting point in the northern part of the Gaza Strip," the Israeli military said in a brief statement, adding that it was ready "to accept other hostages who will be handed over to the Red Cross at a later date."
The Red Cross said today that it had begun an operation in the Gaza Strip to retrieve the first of 20 surviving Israeli hostages from the militant group Hamas, as part of the initial phase of a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the conflict in Gaza, which Trump helped broker, Reuters reported.
Under the agreement, Israel was to release nearly 2.000 Palestinian prisoners and convicts from its jails later on Monday. The handover of 28 more Israeli hostages — 26 of whom were killed and two whose fates are still unknown — is expected to follow.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is supposed to transport the hostages to Israeli security forces, who would then take them to Israel, where they would be reunited with their families and then flown by helicopter to hospitals in the central part of the country.
An official involved in the operation told Reuters that an ICRC convoy had arrived at the first hostage-taking point in Gaza.
Hostage release and Trump's Gaza peace summit
Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported yesterday that Hamas has announced that it has completed preparations for the release of the remaining live hostages, which Israel expects to happen early this morning, after which a peace summit is scheduled to be held in Egypt, hosted by US President Donald Trump, in whose plan for the Gaza Strip the release of the hostages is a key step.
According to the US president's proposal, after Hamas - which the US and the European Union (EU) consider a terrorist organisation - hands over the hostages, Israel is expected to begin releasing around 2.000 prisoners in exchange.
But negotiators remained at loggerheads on Sunday over the final details of the deal. Two Hamas sources told AFP that the group was insisting that Israel include seven senior Palestinian leaders on the list of those to be released.
Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, said the hostage release "will begin early Monday morning" and that Israel "expects all 20 of our live hostages to be released together."
Trump is expected to arrive in Israel shortly after the expected release and will address the Israeli parliament before heading to Egypt to host a meeting of world leaders to support his plan to end the two-year war in the Gaza Strip and promote peace in the Middle East.
"The Palestinian prisoners will be released when Israel receives confirmation that all of our hostages, who are due to be released tomorrow, have crossed the border into Israel," Bedrosian said.
Two Hamas sources told AFP that the group was insisting that Israel release seven prominent Palestinians in the frame, at least one of whom Israel had previously rejected.
"Hamas insists that the final list includes seven senior leaders, the most notable of whom are Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Sadat, Ibrahim Hamed and Abbas Al-Sayed," one source said, confirmed by another.
The source said that the group and its allies had nevertheless "completed all preparations" to hand over to Israel all live hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Under the terms of the plan, Hamas is to release the remaining 47 hostages – alive and dead – who were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, during a brutal Hamas cross-border attack that killed 1.219 people, and triggered Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza.
Hamas is also expected to hand over the remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during the previous war in the Gaza Strip.
Among the Palestinian prisoners to be released, 250 were held for security reasons, including many convicted of killing Israelis, while around 1.700 were arrested by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip during the war.
After visiting Israel, Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will co-chair a summit of leaders from more than 20 countries in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Egyptian presidential office said the meeting would aim to "end the war in the Gaza Strip, advance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security."
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would attend, as would British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgi Meloni and Pedro Sanchez, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron.
Israeli and Hamas officials will not be present, representatives of the two sides confirmed.
On the third day of the ceasefire, some humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip, but residents of Khan Yunis, in the south of the territory, said some shipments were looted by starving residents in the chaos.
Despite apparent progress in the negotiations, mediators still have a difficult task to secure a long-term political solution that will lead to Hamas handing over its weapons.
A Hamas source close to the group's negotiating committee told AFP on Sunday that the group would not participate in the post-war governance of the Gaza Strip, but rejected calls for Hamas to lay down its arms.
"Hamas agrees to a long-term ceasefire and that its weapons are not used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza," the source said.
Under Trump's plan, as Israel implements a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, it will be replaced by a multinational force coordinated by a US-led command center in Israel.
The Palestinian Authority is ready to work with Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in their efforts to consolidate the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and begin reconstruction, a senior Palestinian official told Blair on Sunday.
Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza envisions the Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and led by President Mahmoud Abbas, eventually taking control of the Gaza Strip, but only after it reforms. Abbas lost control of Gaza in 2007 when Hamas forcibly expelled his Fatah.
Trump's proposal says Hamas must end its rule of Gaza and envisions the territory being governed by a Palestinian technocratic board chaired by an international body he will chair, which will include Blair.
Hussein al-Sheikh, deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said he met with Blair to discuss the future of Gaza and how to make Trump's plan to "stop the war in Gaza and establish lasting peace in the region successful."
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 67.809 people, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled territory. The UN believes the figures are credible.
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