It's a moment for which many have been holding their breath — two years after the horrific October 7th attacks, in which 251 people were taken hostage by Hamas, all 20 of the remaining living hostages have been released. Reports indicate that the bodies of only four of the 28 deceased hostages are being released at this time.
Pursuant to the signed peace agreement, which President Donald Trump confirmed late Wednesday afternoon, Hamas was required to release all 48 of the remaining hostages by noon (Israeli time — 5:00 AM Eastern) on Monday. On Sunday came news that the releases were expected to begin a bit earlier than that.
The release of hostages held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip is expected to begin early Monday morning, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Sunday.
Israel has told the families of hostages that it expects them to be released starting from between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., but that the timing could change, The Times of Israel learned.
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President Trump left for Israel on Sunday, with plans to arrive Monday morning, meet with hostage families, and speak to Israel's Knesset. Townhall's Katie Pavlich, who's one of the journalists accompanying Trump on his Middle East trip, shared a list of the names of the 20 living hostages who are finally coming home:
As Katie also noted, unfortunately, although the bodies of the 28 deceased hostages were also due to be returned, not all have been able to be located.
Hamas is required to release all 48 hostages — 20 living and 28 believed to be dead — by Monday at noon. However, the terror group has said it will not be able to locate all the dead hostages within that deadline, and Israel is aware of this. Prime Minister’s Office spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said on Sunday afternoon that once Israel confirms it has received all the hostages it is expecting to receive — a likely indication that it knows which dead hostages Hamas will not be able to hand over on Monday — it will begin to free nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange, including 250 life-termers.
Ahead of the release, the living hostages were moved to three separate locations in the Gaza Strip as Hamas representatives met with Red Cross representatives Sunday night to finalize arrangements regarding the transfer.
Sunday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video clip to X. Netanyahu is speaking Hebrew in the video, but here is a rough translation of his opening words (provided via Grok):
Tomorrow, the sons will return to their borders.
Tomorrow is the beginning of a new path. A path of building, a path of healing, and I hope - a path of uniting hearts.
President Trump also addressed reporters aboard Air Force One as he made his way to the Middle East:
"So, they have the hostages — I understand all 20 — and we may get them out a little bit early," Trump said. "Getting them was amazing, actually, because we were involved, and they were in places you don’t want to know about."
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Although this is just the early stages of the Gaza peace plan's implementation, Trump declared, "The war is over."
For now, the freed hostages and their loved ones — and all those who have been praying for their return — can finally exhale.
They're home.
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