UPDATE: Major news networks continued their coverage of President Donald Trump‘s trip to the Middle East to take a victory lap over a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas.
After two years of images of war and devastation, the pictures coming from Israel were of joy, as families were reunited with remaining 20 hostages. Meanwhile, as part of the ceasefire deal, almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were released.
On Monday evening local, Trump attended a signing ceremony in Egypt for the Gaza peace plan with world leaders, including those from Turkey and Qatar, with the letters ‘PEACE 2025’ displayed in front of them.
“Everybody is happy about it, like I have never seen before,” Trump said.
ABC News anchor David Muir and NBC News anchor Tom Llamas were in Tel Aviv with special reports; CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil was live in Jerusalem
Earlier, Trump addressed the Israeli Knesset, said, “After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families. Twenty eight more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in the sacred soil for all of time. after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are colm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace.” He called it “the historic dawn of a new Middle East.”
The ceasefire is the first phase of the White House peace deal, with further talks to determine the future of Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump “the greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House.” Netanyahu did not participate in the Egypt ceremony.
Trump also drew some applause when, addressing Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, he said of Netanyahu, Give him a pardon.” Netanyahu has been on trial for bribery and fraud charges.
“Whether we like it or not, this is one of the greatest wartime presidents, and cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that,” Trump said.
Trump’s speech was briefly interrupted by two members of the Israeli parliament who shouted, “Recognize Palestine.”
“That was very efficient,” Trump said, commenting on the speed with which the members were taken away.
PREVIOUSLY, 2:53 a.m. ET: Israeli Gaza hostage David Cunio, whose abduction was spotlighted by director Tom Shoval’s 2025 documentary A Letter To David, was one of 20 people released alive along with his brother Ariel on Monday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
“This is such an emotional day for me. I can’t grasp it even. To know David and Ariel came back is a great joy and comfort after two years of worry and fear,” Shoval told Deadline in an email, confirming the brothers were meeting with their families.
The brothers were kidnapped from the Nir Oz Kibbutz during the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and another 251 abducted.
They were among 20 Israeli hostages freed after two years of captivity in Gaza, under the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump and his team.
Heralded as an historic moment, the Gaza ceasefire accord also involves the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians from Israeli jails. The bodies of another 28 Israeli hostages who died in captivity are also due to be returned.
The Israeli army confirmed at around 12.30 pm local time (2.30 am PT) that all 20 living hostages were back in Israel, although their health after two years of living mainly underground has yet to be ascertained.
The hope is that the deal will bring an end to the two-year conflict between Hamas and Israel, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 67,000 Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza.
Beyond Israel and Gaza, the events of the last two years have had a deeply polarizing impact on societies worldwide at all levels, with protests spilling onto the streets, and the entertainment and media world also feeling the heat, amid firings and boycotts for parties with sympathies on either side of the conflict.
On Monday morning, the world’s media was focused on the staggered release of the hostages, with a first batch of seven people handed over to the Red Cross in the early hours. They were named as Omri Miran, Matan Angrest, Ziv Berman, Gali Berman, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Alon Ohel, and Eitan Mor.
News footage showed Red Cross vehicles traveling through the rubble of Gaza on route to an Israeli military base in Southern Israel. This first contingent was reported to have crossed the border into Israel at around 9.40 am local time (Sunday, 11.40 pm PT).
Shortly after, Air Force One landed at Ben Gurion Airport, where Trump was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, adviser Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump.
A second batch of 13 men arrived in Israel around 12.30 pm local time ( (2.30 am PT). All the freed hostages were taken to the Re’im base close to the border for physical and mental checks. They were then transported in Israeli Air Force helicopters to a hospital in central Israel.
Trump was due to address the Israeli parliament and then head to Egypt for an international summit with leaders from more than 20 countries, to discuss next steps in the Gaza peace plan, and the devastated territory’s reconstruction.
In Tel Aviv, large crowds gathered in Hostage Square – the site of protest campaigns calling for the return of hostages over the past two years – to celebrate and watch large screens showing the progress of those being released.
David Cunio and his brother were among 76 people kidnapped from the kibbutz Nir Oz some four miles (7km) from the Gaza border, which was once home to some 400 people, while another 47 were killed.
That same day, David’s wife Sharon, and their three-year-old twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, as well as Ariel’s partner Yehoud were also abducted. Sharon, Yuli and Emma were released November 2023, while Yehoud was freed earlier this year.
Shoval captured David Cunio’s plight and that of his family as they agonized over the return of the brothers in his very personal film A Letter To David, produced by Nancy Spielberg, which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
The director first befriended David Cunio and his twin brother Eitan when they starred in his first feature Youth which world premiered to acclaim in the Berlinale’s Panorama section in 2013.
In a strange quirk, the Cunios played brothers who kidnap a young woman using a military service-issued rifle in an ill-advised scheme to raise funds to pay off family debts.
Eitan Cunio, who also lived in Nir Oz, escaped on October 7 after he hid in his home’s saferoom. He gives a harrowing account in A Letter to David of how he thought he would be burned alive after the attackers started setting fire to buildings.
Mixing extracts from Youth; footage of the development and shooting of the film, and interviews with family members, the cinematic letter adds flesh and blood to the man staring out of “Bring Him Home” posters.
The film won Best Documentary at the Israeli Ophir Awards in September. Shoval said at the time: “This is an unfinished film, it will remain open until David returns.”
The other hostages due to be released on Monday include Bar Abraham Kupershtein, Evyatar David, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Segev Kalfon, Avinatan Or, Elkana Bohbot, Maxim Herkin, Nimrod Cohen, Matan Angrest, Matan Zangauker, Eitan Horn and Rom Braslavski.