Tearful reunions were captured on video Monday as the last 20 living Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity in Gaza and reunited with their families.
Family members shed tears of unimaginable joy as they embraced their loved ones for the first time in more than two years.
Video clips released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) depict the emotional moments when Guy Gilboa-Dalal (24), Matan Zangauker (25), Matan Angrest (22), and Eitan Mor (25), and Alon Ohel (24) were reunited with their parents at the IDF’s Re’im base in southern Israel.
Zangauker can be heard asking his mother if his dog was still alive.
Israeli twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 28, were all smiles as they reunited after being held separately for over two years.
Omri Miran, 48, was photographed reuniting with his wife Lishay Miran-Lavi at the Re’im base.
Another video, released by the IDF, showed Nimrod Cohen, a 21-year-old Israeli soldier, meeting his family at the Re’im reception point.
Miran, the Berman twins, Mor, Alon Ohel, Angrest, and Gilboa-Dalal were reportedly among the first group of Israeli hostages to be released Monday morning.
They were followed by the remaining 13 hostages; Zangauker, Cohen, Ariel Cunio (28), David Cunio (35), Evyatar David (24), Yosef-Chaim Ohana (25), Elkana Bohbot (36), Avinatan Or (32), Bar Kupershtein (23), Segev Kalfon (27), Rom Braslabski ( 21), Eitan Horn (38) and Maxim Herkin (37).
“We are in a dream,” said Avi Ohana, the father of hostage Yosef, Monday morning.
The hostages will all undergo medical examinations in Israel after being held in captivity by Hamas for 738 days.
The reunions followed a ceasefire deal brokered by President Donald Trump, under which Israel began releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Hamas is supposed to hand over 28 deceased bodies as part of the peace deal, but is expected to hand over only four this afternoon.
The terror group has previously claimed that they don’t know where the remains of all the dead hostages are.
IDF spokesman BG Effie Defrin celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in a statement Monday:
“Today, after seven hundred and thirty-eight days, the last 20 living hostages have come home,” he said. This is a defining moment. A moment that belongs to the people of Israel and to all those who believe in humanity.”