Thousands of jubilant Israelis gathered in a Tel Aviv square Thursday, hopeful for the return of hostages held in Gaza, after two years of fear and worry.<\/p>\n
Many wore stickers reading “They’re coming back”, waving Israeli and US flags and clutching photos of the hostages after Israel and Hamas reached a hostage release and truce deal in a major step towards ending the war.<\/p>\n
A group of beaming Israelis sang, clapped and jumped in a circle in Hostages Square, which has been the scene of weekly rallies calling for the captives’ return.<\/p>\n
“We have been waiting for this day for 734 days. We cannot imagine being anywhere else this morning,” said Laurence Yitzhak, 54, a Tel Aviv resident.<\/p>\n
“It’s a great joy — an immense relief mixed with anxiety, fear and sorrow for the families who haven’t and won’t get to experience this joy,” she said.<\/p>\n
“As I speak to you, I get goosebumps… It’s too beautiful, and we cannot help but think of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for these hostages,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump announced that both sides had agreed to a ceasefire and a hostage-prisoner exchange programme as part of a 20-point plan he had proposed last month.<\/p>\n
The formal agreement is expected to be signed later Thursday in Egypt, a key mediator alongside the United States and Qatar.<\/p>\n
“There are no words to describe the feeling today. It’s indescribable, like spontaneous joy, excitement, tears,” said Rachel Peery, 49, an employee in the tech sector.<\/p>\n
“We all came here from the office because we are just unable to work. It’s a day that the entire nation has been waiting for, for two years, every second, every day.”<\/p>\n
– ‘What hope feels like’ –<\/p>\n
Businessman Gyura Dishon was equally jubilant that the hostages were coming home.<\/p>\n
“It’s unbelievable… You couldn’t stop crying,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s like something that you wouldn’t believe can happen and you were wishing for it to happen and then it’s coming true all of a sudden.”<\/p>\n
The deal could free the remaining living hostages within days, in a major step toward ending the two-year war.<\/p>\n
Of the 251 people abducted during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which sparked the war, militants still hold 47 in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.<\/p>\n
Hamas’s assault on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.<\/p>\n
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,194 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.<\/p>\n
In Jerusalem, a newsagent told AFP he supported the release of the hostages, “but I am against ending the war”.<\/p>\n
“They started something, they must pay the heavy price,” he said.<\/p>\n
A man praying to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot said it was a “wonderful feeling” and something that “should have been done a long time ago”.<\/p>\n
“This is not a happy ending,” he said. “We have lost many good people. But it was the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n
In Tel Aviv, Noam Ekhaus, a 36-year-old photographer and neuroscience researcher said she woke up in the middle of the night, saw the news, and went straight to Hostages Square.<\/p>\n
“I can’t just celebrate at home alone,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t been smiling like this in a while and I don’t think that I’m the only one,” she added.<\/p>\n
“I’m walking down the street and I’m feeling something different and I’m seeing something different and this is what hope feels like.”<\/p>\n
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