Israel has released 250 imprisoned Palestinians after Hamas handed over all 20 living Israeli captives
The 20 remaining hostages in Gaza have been returned to Israel on Monday after two years of war. In return, West Jerusalem released 250 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,700 detainees from Gaza that had been held since Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023.
Emotional scenes unfolded as the freed hostages reunited with their families in hospitals across Israel and as released Palestinian detainees met with their relatives in the West Bank and arrived in buses to large crowds in Gaza.
As part of the agreement, the Palestinian militant group also handed over to the Red Cross four coffins with the remains of deceased hostages. The Israeli organization “Forum for Hostages and Relatives of the Disappeared,” however, called for “an immediate suspension of the agreement” until the remaining 24 bodies of hostages who died in captivity are returned to Israel from Gaza.
The return of all hostages, living or dead, by Monday afternoon was the main condition of the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza. The militants, however, claim they did not have enough time to find the bodies of all the deceased hostages.
Earlier on Monday, US President Donald Trump visited Israel and declared “the historic dawn of the new Middle East” in an address before the Knesset. He told the lawmakers that Israel had no more to achieve on the battlefield and must work toward peace in the Middle East.
He delivered the same message to an assembly of other world leaders after signing the Gaza ceasefire deal at a summit in Egypt.
A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive. In Gaza, at least 67,869 people have been killed since then, according to local health authorities.
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