The wait that crushed families, ideally embraced by an entire country, for over two years is over. From midnight, a packed Hostage Square in Tel Aviv will follow live the “historic moment” of the return home of the 20 still alive kidnapped prisoners, as promised by Hamas, followed by the release of the Palestinian prisoners included in the exchange. “The healing process begins,” underlined Benyamin Netanyahu.
A success also for Donald Trump, ready to meet the survivors of the October 7 pogrom in Israel, before flying to Egypt to sign the ceasefire agreement. The issues remain to be resolved on the delivery times of the bodies of the dead hostages and on the list of Hamas prisoners, which insists on requesting some high-profile figures such as Marwan Barghouti.
The third day of truce in Gaza was characterized by uncertainty over the timing of the release of those kidnapped in the hands of Hamas. Until a spokeswoman for the Netanyahu government, Shosh Bedrosian, announced: «The release of our hostages will begin in the early hours of Monday. We expect all twenty living hostages to be released together and at once to the Red Cross, in six to eight vehicles.”
At that point “they will be taken inside the areas of Gaza controlled by Israel and then transferred to the Reim base, in the south, where they will be reunited with their families”, added Bedrosian. Contact with the Red Cross should take place in three points of the Strip. Once the live hostages find their freedom, Israel intends to proceed with the release of the Palestinian prisoners: in total, there are 250 life prisoners sentenced for attacks and murders, to which are added approximately 1,700 incarcerated since 7 October 2023 but not involved in the Hamas attack, including 22 minors.
The list is still at the center of the negotiations, with the Islamist faction asking for “seven high-profile prisoners”. The unknown regarding the bodies of the deceased Israeli hostages also remains. The Jewish state hoped to recover all 28 in a single solution, but the agreement provides that Hamas must hand over only those it has managed to track down by midday on Monday.
Qatari media speculate that the bodies found by Hamas will be delivered in the evening. For the remaining ones, the Israeli authorities have made it known that the international forces established under the peace plan will help find them, in the tunnels or among the rubble.
In Israel, the long night of freedom for the kidnapped will be followed step by step with “continuous projections of their return, shown in the square for the public who wishes to be present in these historic and deeply moving moments”, said the Families Forum, calling for the rally in Tel Aviv. “The children will return to their land, a new path begins, a path of reconstruction, healing and, I hope, union of hearts”, Netanyahu’s words. The spotlight is also on in the US administration.
Trump will greet the hostages “in person”, said Vice President Jd Vance, underlining that the first phase of the implementation of the peace agreement is “a great day for the whole world”.
And a hero’s welcome is expected for the tycoon, who is also called to make an important speech in the Knesset. The eve of the prisoner exchange was characterized, for the first time since March, by the start of a massive influx of trucks with aid intended for civilians in Gaza with the UN speaking of “real progress”.
Dozens of convoys departed from Rafah headed for the Karm Abu Salem and Al-Ouja crossings: in particular 90 convoys out of 400, with which 9 thousand tons of food, medical supplies, fuel and comfort items will be transported, in what the local media have defined as the largest Egyptian humanitarian shipment. The international media published images of long queues of trucks at the border, waiting for IDF inspections, while dozens of people attacked a vehicle that entered Khan Younis in a desperate search for supplies.