A moment many no longer hoped for. Now it's truly over. After two years of captivity, All twenty Israeli hostages have been freedAt 9:48 a.m. Italian time, Hamas handed over the last 13 hostages to the Red Cross in the Khan Younis area, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli and international sources confirm that all the kidnapped people still alive have been released.
Television footage showed ICRC convoys leaving Gaza, heading towards the Israeli border, where doctors, soldiers, and family members were waiting for them.
The first seven have already been reunited with their families
A few hours earlier, the first seven hostages released in the north of the Strip, Eitan Mor, Alon Ohel, Ziv and Gali Berman, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Omri Miran and Matan Angrest, they already had reached the Israeli reception point for the first medical visits.
The idf He announced that “all are now in Israeli territory and have been reunited with their families.”
The scene, broadcast live on public television Kan, moved the country: hugs, tears, applause.
All Palestinian prisoners also released who were to be released under the deal, an IDF spokesperson told The Times of Israel.
Trump: "A new beginning"
Meanwhile, a Tel Aviv, landed theA with on-board Donald Trump“This is a great honor for me. A great and beautiful day. A new beginning,” declared the president.
In an interview with Axios, Trump added that “The Gaza peace deal may be the most important thing I've ever been a part of.".
The release's news reached Brussels. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen he defined “a milestone” the peace agreement, promising the EU's support “for the reconstruction of Gaza and the reform of the Palestinian Authority”.
Even the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani he spoke on X of “a a light of hope after two years of horrors“After the ceasefire, another step forward in the transition from war to peace. Italy will contribute to making the 'two peoples, two states' project a reality.”
Herzog: “A morning of great hope”
There will be a waiting room for the hostages handwritten letter from Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu"On behalf of all the people of Israel, welcome back! We've been waiting for you, we embrace you." The welcome kits prepared by the Prime Minister's Office include clean clothes, personal items, a phone, a tablet, and a laptop.
In the early hours of the morning, even before the complete liberation, the Israeli president Isaac Duke He had spoken of "a morning of great hope and great prayer. A morning in which we expect and desire to see everyone home, every last one." Those words now resonate like a promise kept.
The end of a nightmare after two years of darkness
The twenty hostages freed today represent the last page of October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas attack that shocked Israel and dragged the region into two years of war and devastation. The liberation marks the end of a collective nightmare, but also the beginning of a fragile path towards a peace that still needs to be built.
As Trump wrote in the Knesset guestbook: “Today is not just the end of a war. It is the beginning of a new story.”
"Thank you President Trump“, thus Netanyahu opened his speech in the Knesset alongside the US president. “The Trump's name will be remembered in history “He is the greatest friend the State of Israel has ever had in the White House,” he added. “No American president has ever done this for Israel.”
The American president will then participate in the "Peace Summit" in Sharm el-Sheikh, together with Egyptian President al-Sisi and twenty international leaders, among which Abu Mazen, but without official representatives of Israel or Hamas. There will also be Macron, Starmer, Giorgia Meloni, and UN Secretary-General Antonio GuterresNetanyahu, however, will not be there, having canceled his trip to Sharm due to the start of the Simchat Torah holiday, which begins this evening.
Last update 13,18am
