All 20 Living Israeli Hostages Freed

Israel joined the families in celebration on Monday as Hamas released the 20 remaining living hostages under the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, who came to Israel to mark the event.

Hamas is yet to release the remains of 28 dead hostages, despite being required to do so under the deal that would bring some closure to the national trauma that began when the terror group took 251 hostages back to Gaza after massacring some 1,200 people on October 7, 2023.

The first seven living hostages — Matan Angrest, Alon Ohel, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Guy Gilboa-Dallal and twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman — were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, in the Strip’s north, at about 8 a.m. and transferred to Israeli forces inside Gaza about an hour later.

The next 13 — Elkana Bohbot, Avinatan Or, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Evyatar David, Rom Braslavski, Segev Kalfon, Nimrod Cohen, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Matan Zangauker, Bar Kupershtein and brothers David and Ariel Cunio — were handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, in the Strip’s south, shortly before 11 a.m. and transferred to Israeli forces inside Gaza about an hour later.

All 20 returned pale and frail, but smiling and standing on their legs, with most of them held in horrific conditions in tunnels deep under Gaza, where many faced abuse, starvation and received limited medical treatment.

Each released hostage was taken to the Re’im border facility, where they were reunited with their families in emotional scenes.

They underwent initial medical checks at Re’im to determine if any of them needed immediate, urgent treatment.

They were then flown on a military chopper to hospitals in central Israel, where they will undergo treatment and rehabilitation. Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar personally flew the helicopter transporting Cohen and his family to Sourasky Medical Center, the military said.

Footage released by the IDF showed hostages’ families to be elated and tearful as they reunited with their loved ones, as large crowds gathered in Jerusalem and on Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square cheered from afar.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hostages Square to celebrate the release, waving Israeli flags and singing and dancing. Thousands more lined the streets as the hostages were transported to the Re’im base, while others gathered at the three hospitals where the freed hostages were brought.

Marking the release, Ohad Ben Ami, who was released emaciated from Hamas captivity in February as part of the last Gaza ceasefire, sent a message to his former cellmates: Bohbot, Ohana, Kuperstein, Kalfon and Herkin.

“Elkana, Yosef, Bar, Segev, Maxim, my souls, I love you,” said Ben Ami. “Listen well, all of the nation of Israel waited for you, is waiting for you, you can’t imagine what was going on here. I will finally see you and hold you, we will do all the things we planned after you reunite with your families. You’ll recover, you’ll see, I regained all of my weight,” he added.

“I love you, you’re so strong, you held on, I’m so proud of you, I love you, love you!” said Ben Ami.

Before their release, Hamas orchestrated video calls between the hostages and their families. The hostages could be seen in the videos accompanied by Hamas gunmen, and wearing fake military uniforms that Hamas had forced released hostages to wear in propaganda handover ceremonies during the previous Gaza ceasefire earlier this year. Israel demanded this time around that Hamas not hold such ceremonies.

In exchange for the 20 hostages, Israel on Monday released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 terror convicts serving life sentences, as stipulated by Trump’s ceasefire proposal, an IDF spokesperson told The Times of Israel.

Israel had initially said it would wait until all hostages, the living and the dead, had been released, but instead decided to free the prisoners after only the 20 living hostages were freed.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum said it had received notice that Hamas would release only four of the 28 dead hostages on Monday, calling it a “blatant breach” of the ceasefire agreement, which had required Hamas to release the hostages within 72 hours of the IDF’s Friday withdrawal.

The four slain hostages slated for release were later identified by Hamas as Guy Illouz, Yossi Sharabi, Bipin Joshi and Daniel Perez. The statement did not specify when the transfer would take place.

“This represents a blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas. We expect Israel’s government and the mediators to take immediate action to rectify this grave injustice,” the Forum said, noting it is “shocked and dismayed.”

“The families of the deceased hostages are enduring especially difficult days filled with deep sorrow,” said the group. “We will not abandon any hostage. The mediators must enforce the agreement’s terms and ensure Hamas pays a price for this violation.”

Hamas has said it would have difficulties locating some of the bodies of the deceased hostages.

Israel has confirmed the deaths of 26 hostages, including a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war. Joshi, a Nepali agricultural student whose body Hamas said it would release on Monday, was one of two hostages for whose fate Israel had expressed grave concern without confirming them dead.

The second of those two hostages, soldier Tamir Nimrodi, was not released on Monday, but his father Alon held out hope.

“I want to clarify to all that Tamir, from the first day, was listed as a living hostage, and also today, despite the heavy cloud, it hasn’t been proven otherwise,” he wrote on social media.

“Bibi normalized the number 20 instead of 22,” says Nimrodi, referring to the list of 20 living hostages mentioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks.

Nimrodi added that he and his ex-wife, Herut Nimrodi, did not receive any updates regarding Tamir and were not asked to come to “prepare a bag” of their son’s belongings and bring it to the IDF base at Re’im, where the living hostages were brought.