All of the living hostages who were taken on October 7, 2023, were returned to Israel today. I can’t imagine what their families are feeling.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Israel reclaimed its 20 living hostages early Monday after they spent more than two years in Hamas captivity, a triumphant moment that marked the first stage of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

Video footage showed some of the hostages speaking to their families from video calls in Gaza before being turned over to the Israel Defense Forces. The first seven were released to the IDF around 2 a.m. Eastern Time, with the remaining 13 living hostages joining them roughly two hours later. All of the living hostages arrived on Israeli soil by 5 a.m. Monday.

The article includes some beautiful pictures of family reunions.

The article notes:

The hostage release is part of a ceasefire deal that also requires Hamas to return the remains of deceased hostages, though it’s unclear exactly when that will happen. Israel released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal’s initial phase and withdrew its military forces from around half the territory of Gaza.

Trump will leave Israel to attend a summit on the deal scheduled to take place in Egypt on Monday. It is there that world leaders are expected to discuss the peace plan’s subsequent stages, including Hamas’s disarmament and the formal end of the war. Questions remain on those details, but Trump expressed confidence that the ceasefire will hold.

“The war is over,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening. “We have a lot of verbal guarantees, and I don’t think they’re going to want to disappoint me.”

If I were Hamas, I would understand that as a threat.

The article concludes:

Trump made good on his promise to help bring the hostages home by issuing several strict deadlines to Hamas while fully backing Israel’s war operations in Gaza. The pressure campaign worked, squeezing the terror group and eroding its support among Arab nations, particularly the Hamas-friendly Qatar.

Israel’s government approved the deal at Netanyahu’s urging last week, and in discussions with negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the Jewish state ensured that its military will remain in parts of Gaza to prevent terrorism and stop Hamas from rearming. The IDF will retain control of the territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt—a central pipeline for weapons—and other areas that include Hamas strongholds like Gaza City and Khan Younis, according to the Times of Israel.

Witkoff and Kushner addressed hundreds of thousands of Israelis at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening. They praised the “heroism” of the IDF and the “exceptional” state of Israel. The crowd broke out in chants of “Thank you Kushner! Thank you Trump!”

This isn’t the end; it is only the beginning.