First Israeli hostages released

[Twiglets1]

Hamas have released the first group of hostages this morning.

7 have been handed to the Red Cross.

Another group will be released later today.

The Telegraph:

Amongst the first group released are Gali and Ziv Berman, 28 and 27, Matan Angrest, 22, Alon Ohel, 24, Omri Miran, 47, Eitan Mor, 25, and Guy Gilboa-Dallal, 23, according to reports.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/13/hamas-hostage-release-live-trump-starmer-gaza-war/

Some very young people in that group

From the same source:

The second group of hostages could be released two hours later from Khan Yunis.

The hostages would then be driven to the Re’im military base in southern Israel to be reunited with their relatives.

They will then be flown in helicopters to three hospitals in central Israel that are ready to welcome them: Sheba, Ichiloc and Beilonson.

Medics told The Telegraph that preparations included strict diets and mental health support to help hostages adapt to life without restrictions inside Gaza.

Israeli leaders and Donald Trump, the US president, are expected to meet with some of the hostages and their families.

Yes ... I read this from the father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal

“I don’t know what kind of son I’m going to get back,” Ilan Gilboa-Dalal told reporters on Sunday evening.

The last time Mr Gilboa-Dalal glimpsed his son Guy, in a video released by Hamas last month, he saw “despair in his eyes.”

“We saw him not the way we knew him,” he said. “It was a different Guy.”

Live inages from hostage square, so much hope for their loved ones and peace.

Almost cant believe it.
So very happy for their families and hope they can find a way to move past from the last 2 years... 2 years!!

🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗

That's fantastic news! Let's hope the rest is released quickly and fuss free.

It’s horrifying that only 20 are thought to still be alive but my thoughts are with those being returned and their families today.

on tenterhooks

🎗️🎗️🎗️🎗️🎗️🎗️🎗️

I pray they all come home and are able to heal. Just awful that it even happened.

It should never have taken 2 years to get them home 💐

Hamas have published the names of the 20 Israeli hostages to be released today:

Bar Abraham Kupershtein, Evyatar David, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Segev Kalfon, Avinatan Or, Elkana Bohbot, Maxim Herkin, Nimrod Cohen, Matan Angrest, Matan Zangauker, Eitan Horn, Eitan Abraham Mor, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Omri Miran, Alon Ohel, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Rom Braslavski, Ariel Cunio and David Cunio.

Taking a moment to think of Bipan Joshi's loved ones this morning.

The second stage of the release of living hostages will be taking place at 10am local time (8am BST) in southern Gaza, according to Arab media reports.

I understand the celebrations but will that all be too much for the hostages does it need to be calmer for them. Considering everything they have been through.

So very sad

They must be heartbroken that his name was not on the list.

Apparently his family have been informed that efforts to locate him—or his body if deceased—will continue.

For anyone who doesn't know about Joshi, he went to Israel under the Learn and Earn Programme, was working at the Alumim kibbutz with 16 other Nepalis when Hamas attacked on October 7, 2023.

Ten Nepalis were killed, five were injured, and one escaped unharmed. Joshi and a Thai national were taken hostage.

A few months ago I listened to an interview with an Israeli woman called Tal Hartuv. Years earlier she was working as a tour guide and was taking an American woman she had first befriended in Europe on a hike through the Israeli countryside. They were attacked by a group of Palestinian men who set out to murder the first Israelis they saw that day. The American woman was hacked to pieces while Tal was left for dead, only surviving her horrific injuries because her attacker had used a bread knife rather than a machete and its serrated edge kept getting caught on her bones.

One of Tal's attackers is on the list of Palestinians to be released from prison during this deal and yet I am currently watching the BBC news and they are talking as if there is some equivalence between the hostages who have been kidnapped and tortured for two years in dank tunnels and the Palestinians. It is both disgraceful and sinister and I hope most of the viewers can see through it.

I'm so relieved for the hostages and their families. I read about Bipan this morning and my thoughts are with his family - I hope they can find out what happened to him.
I'm also glad that the handover was done privately

Never knowing what happened to him or who was/is holding him is terrible. I do not trust these sadists to be honest about what they have done to people or if they are still alive.

The Red Cross is now in position in Gaza to facilitate a second transfer of hostages from Hamas to the Israeli military, which will then transport them into Israel.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has said that it is “deeply gratifying” to witness the release of the hostages being freed from Gaza today.

“I wondered if I would ever see this day. It’s deeply gratifying to know that so many families will finally have their loved ones home. Today, twenty families are spared the unbearable pain of not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again,” Witkoff said in a post on X.

However, “even in this moment of relief and happiness, my heart aches for those whose loved ones will not return alive,” he added. “Bringing their bodies home is a must and an act of dignity and honors their memory forever.”

Witkoff, who played a crucial role in the ceasefire negotiations, said that the day’s events mean that he feels the presence of his son, Andrew, who died in 2011.

Thank you.

That's brilliant news.

The last remaining living hostages held in Gaza have been released by Hamas to the Red Cross.

I'm so happy for the hostages and their families.

And also sorry for those Israeli families who have not got their loved ones home today.