Hamas releases all living captives in swap with Israel

PHOTO CAPTION: Palestinian militants stand guard on the day that hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, are handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

By Alexander Cornwell, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Andrew Mills

JERUSALEM/CAIRO/DOHA  -  Hamas freed the last 20 surviving Israeli hostages on Monday under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, a big step towards ending two years of shattering war in Gaza as President Donald Trump urged Israel to turn military success into peace.

The Israeli military said it had received all hostages confirmed to be alive after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross, prompting cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv.

Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed by Israel as part of the accord arrived in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

TRUMP ADDRESSES ISRAELI PARLIAMENT

"The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace," Trump said before a planned summit in Egypt aimed at cementing the Gaza truce. 

"Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East," he told the Knesset, Israel's parliament. 

However, formidable obstacles remain even to a resolution of the Gaza conflagration, let alone to the wider, generations-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict or other longstanding schisms running through the Middle East. 

FOLLOW-UP SUMMIT TO ADDRESS GAZA'S FUTURE

The release of hostages and Palestinian detainees was pivotal to the first phase of the Gaza accord concluded last week in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Monday's summit will take place.

Over 20 world leaders will weigh next steps under Trump's 20-point blueprint for peace two years after the October 7, 2023 cross-border Hamas assault that killed 1,200 people with 251 taken hostage, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

Israeli airstrikes, bombardments and ground offensives have since killed over 67,000 Palestinians, the enclave's health officials say, and laid waste to much of the enclave where a global hunger monitor said aid restrictions had caused famine and most of the 2.2 million people are homeless.

The war has also reshaped the Middle East through spillover Israeli conflicts with Iran, Lebanon's Tehran-backed Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis. 

Aid supplies are meant to flow better under the ceasefire plan. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher underlined the need to "get shelter and fuel to people who desperately need it and to massively scale up the food and medicine and other supplies going in."

'I HAVE RETURNED, THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVE,' SAYS FREED HOSTAGE

Beaming with relief and joy, two hostages waved to cheering crowds from vans on the way to an Israeli hospital, one hoisting a large Israeli flag then forming a heart with his hands. 

Video footage captured emotional scenes of families receiving phone messages from their loved ones as they were being released, their faces lighting up with disbelief and hope after months of anguish. 

"I am so excited. I am full of happiness. It's hard to imagine how I feel this moment. I didn't sleep all night," said Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, as she travelled to Reim, an Israeli military camp where hostages were being transferred. 

In Gaza, a dozen masked and black-clad gunmen, apparently members of Hamas' armed wing, arrived at Nasser Hospital where a stage and chairs had been laid out to welcome returning Palestinian prisoners. 

"I hope that these images can be the end to this war. We lost friends and relatives, we lost our houses and our city," said Emad Abu Joudat, 57, a Palestinian father of six from Gaza City watching handover preparations on his phone.                

LIKELY PITFALLS  

Washington mediated the agreement along with Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, with the next phase calling for an international body - a "Board of Peace" - led by Trump. 

Much could still go wrong. Further steps over which previous truce efforts stumbled have yet to be agreed, including how the densely populated coastal territory will be governed once fighting ends and the ultimate fate of Hamas.    

Hamas' appearance with militants gathered at Nasser Hospital underscored the likely difficulty of assuaging Israeli concerns about the Islamist militant group's continued hold over Gaza, where it has ruled since 2007.

Hamas gunmen killed 32 members of what it called a "gang" in Gaza City during a security crackdown launched after Israeli forces pulled back under the ceasefire, a Palestinian security source said. 

As he entered the Knesset, Trump said Hamas would comply with a provision under his plan for it to disarm, although the group has ruled this out before Palestinians achieve statehood.

Trump's envoys met Hamas negotiators in Sharm el-Sheikh before the ceasefire was agreed, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the matter said. 

Further sticking points may include Israel's own continued withdrawal from Gaza, and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state, an outcome many Israelis reject.     

Trump was greeted with a nearly unanimous standing ovation - a rare sign of unity among parties that are often at odds. 

Knesset speaker Amir Ohana said Israel would nominate Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.    

SEA OF RUBBLE

Bodies of some of the 26 confirmed dead hostages, and another two whose fate was unknown, will also be released on Monday. A committee has been established to locate some bodies likely lost in the wreckage of Gaza. 

Buses arrived in Gaza carrying some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees being freed from Israeli prisons.

Most were detainees taken during the war, but the group included 250 prisoners convicted of involvement in deadly attacks or held under suspicion of such security offences.     

 (Reporting by Maayan Lubell, Steven Scheer and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Andrew Mills in Doha, Evelyn Hockstein aboard Air Force One and Jana Choukeir, Ahmed Elimam and Tala Ramadan in Dubai; writing by Howard Goller and Angus McDowall; editing by Edmund Klamann, Michael Perry, Lincoln Feast, Mark Heinrich and Timothy Heriwatage // REUTERS)