Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages on Monday morning as part of the Gaza peace deal brokered by the Trump administration.
Why it matters: The Israeli hostages, most of them civilians, were held in captivity in Gaza for more than two years.
Driving the news: Hamas had to release all 20 of the live hostages by Monday at noon local time, according to the agreement.
The hostages were transferred by Hamas to the Red Cross, which delivered them to Israeli forces inside Gaza.
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As part of the peace agreement mediated by the Trump administration for Gaza, Hamas freed all 20 Israeli hostages who were still alive on Monday morning.
The Israeli hostages, the majority of whom were civilians, were detained in Gaza for over two years, which is why it matters. At last, every hostage who made it out alive is now at liberty.
As part of a Middle East trip to solidify his peace plan for Gaza, President Trump began the hostage release just before his arrival in Israel.
Release of them was a crucial Israeli and U.S. S. . call for the war’s termination.
The story’s main focus was the agreement that required Hamas to free all 20 of the hostages by Monday at noon local time.
Shortly after eight in the morning local time, the first seven hostages were freed. The Red Cross took the hostages from Hamas and brought them to Israeli forces in Gaza.
Two hours later, the remaining thirteen hostages were freed. Prior to their release, Hamas militants used video calls to connect the second group to their relatives and requested that they spread the word in the Israeli media.
After being brought to a military installation outside of Gaza to be with their loved ones, the hostages were transported to Israeli hospitals for medical care.
With little food and water, and virtually no medical attention for their injuries sustained during Hamas’ October invasion, the hostages all spent the majority of the previous two years in underground tunnels. 7 assaults.
Many of them might be in extremely poor health, which worries Israeli officials.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff said in a statement, “Today, twenty families are spared the unbearable pain of not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again.”.
But even in this happy and relieved moment, my heart hurts for people whose loved ones won’t make it back alive. Their bodies must be brought home as a sign of respect and to forever preserve their memory. “.
Zoom in The agreement also requires Hamas to recover the bodies of 28 hostages who have died, including two Americans, Omer Neutra and Itay Chen.
During the negotiations, Hamas asserted that it was unsure of the precise locations of all the dead hostages’ bodies. According to the group, the bodies were sometimes buried beneath debris or the militants defending them were killed.
A multinational task force has been formed as part of the peace agreement to exchange information about the whereabouts of the hostages who may have died and to carry out search operations inside Gaza.
All but two dozen of the 250 Palestinian inmates serving life sentences in Israeli jails will be released in exchange for the hostages’ release.
Furthermore, Israel will free 1,700 Palestinians held in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces after October. 7.
Hamas militants who took part in the October attack were not released by Israel. 7 attacks, as well as to free a dozen Palestinian prisoners it views as symbols, such as Ibrahim Hamed, the military leader of Hamas, and Marwan Barghouti, the former West Bank leader of Fatah.
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