UPDATE: Hamas releases hostages under U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal
Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP
UPDATE: Hamas has released the 20 surviving Israeli hostages.
According to information provided by the Red Cross, “the first seven hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF and ISA forces in the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military and security service said.
Citing an Israeli official, the country’s public broadcaster later reported the release of 13 other hostages.
A Palestinian militant (R) fighter of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stands guard next to a crowd watching the transfer of released Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in the south of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on 13 October 2025. The Palestinian militant group has handed over to the Red Cross a second group of 13 Israeli hostages released on 13 October. Bashar TALEB / AFP
News broke that Hamas had handed over the first seven hostages to be released on Monday after two years of captivity in Gaza. This marks the first step in the US-backed Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal.
Hamas and militant allies took hostage 251 people into Gaza during the 07 October 2023 attack. Many were released in earlier truces, but 47 people seized in October remained in Gaza. 20 are still alive.
Meanwhile, Israel has detained almost 2,000 Palestinians in response. This number includes 250 people serving life sentences for convictions in attacks on Israelis. The rest are Palestinian civilians with no charges, captured during the war.
Tel Aviv Square in Israel, also known as the Hostages Square, had seen frequent rallies and gatherings over the past two years as a campaign to free the hostages. Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the news, carrying pictures of the hostages and waving Israeli flags bearing a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the campaign. On loudspeakers, the song "Habayta" ("Homeward" in Hebrew) played on a loop, echoed by hundred of Israeli voices singing in unison. The song was originally dedicated to Israeli soldiers fighting in Lebanon, and has been adapted for the Hostages Square rallies.
While the first ceasefire-hostage deal is being celebrated, other key details in the ceasefire deal have yet to be resolved, including the future governance of Gaza and who will pay for a billion-dollar reconstruction process. Israel wants to ensure that the weakened Hamas disarms. Hamas, on the other hand, wants to ensure Israel pulls its troops completely out of Gaza and return the land back to Palestinians.
A peace summit in Egypt will continue on Monday, 13 October. US President Donald Trump will attend alongside regional and international leaders. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s office will co-chair. Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, will attend, according to a judge and adviser to Abbas, Mahmoud al-Habbash.