By Alexander Cornwell, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Andrew Mills
JERUSALEM/CAIRO/DOHA (Reuters) -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 proclaimed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East”.
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.
Buses carrying Palestinians released from Israeli prisons as part of the accord also arrived in Gaza, an official involved in the operation told Reuters.
“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 was due to tell the Knesset in a speech before flying on to Egypt for a summit aimed at building conditions for a lasting peace in Gaza.
However, major obstacles remain even to a lasting resolution of the conflict in Gaza, let alone to the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict or other major schisms running through the long-volatile Middle East.
FOLLOW-UP SUMMIT TO ADDRESS GAZA’S FUTURE
The release of hostages and the freeing of Palestinian detainees form a critical aspect of the first phase of the ceasefire accord concluded last week in the Egyptian 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 plan aimed at securing a lasting peace after two years of war that began with the October 7, 2023 cross-border Hamas attack that killed around 1,200 people with 251 taken hostage.
Israeli airstrikes, bombardments and armoured ground assaults have since devastated Gaza, killing more than 67,000 Palestinians, the enclave’s health officials say, and laying waste to much of the enclave, causing a humanitarian disaster.
‘I HAVE RETURNED, THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVE,’ SAYS FREED HOSTAGE
Initial photographs of six of the freed Israeli hostages distributed by the Israeli military showed them standing, some smiling and talking with soldiers who were receiving them.
As he flew from Gaza on an Israeli helicopter, released hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal wrote on a whiteboard: “I have returned – the people of Israel live”, according to a photograph shown on Israeli television.
“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 the hostages were being transferred.
In Gaza, about 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 as he watched the handover preparations on his phone.
LIKELY PITFALLS AHEAD
The Trump administration 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.
However, much could still go wrong: Further steps over which previous truce efforts stumbled have yet to be agreed. Those include how the densely populated coastal territory will be governed once fighting ends, and the ultimate fate of Hamas.
The group’s appearance on Monday with fighters gathered at Nasser Hospital underscored the likely difficulty of assuaging Israeli concerns about the Islamist group’s continued hold over Gaza, where it has ruled since 2007.
Hamas militants 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 on Monday.
As he entered the Israeli Knesset (parliament), Trump said Palestinian militant group Hamas would comply with a provision under his plan for it to disarm.
Further sticking points may include Israel’s own continued withdrawal from the Gaza Strip beyond the lines to which it pulled back in recent days, and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state, something rejected by many Israelis.
Trump will become only the fourth U.S. president to address the Knesset, following Jimmy Carter in 1979, Bill Clinton in 1994 and George W. Bush in 2008.
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 and disorder of Gaza.
Dozens of buses carrying some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees being freed from Israeli prisons as part of the deal arrived in Gaza.
Most were detainees taken by Israeli forces during the war in Gaza but the group included 250 prisoners convicted of involvement in deadly attacks or held under suspicion of such security offences.
Two years of war have reduced Gaza to a sea of rubble, with nearly all its 2.2 million people homeless. It has also reshaped the Middle East through spillover Israeli conflicts with Iran, Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher said on X that Israel had approved the delivery of more emergency supplies and the main U.N. aid agency working in Gaza, UNRWA, urged Israel to let it work unhindered in the territory.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell, Steven Scheer and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Pesha Magid and 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 and Mark Heinrich)
