Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages on Monday morning as part of the Gaza peace deal brokered by the Trump administration.
Why it matters: The Israeli hostages, most of them civilians, were held in captivity in Gaza for more than two years. Finally, all of the hostages who survived are now free.
- The hostage release started shortly before President Trump landed in Israel, as part of a Middle East trip aimed at cementing his Gaza peace plan.
- Their release was a key Israeli and U.S. demand for ending the war.
Driving the news: Hamas had to release all 20 of the live hostages by Monday at noon local time, according to the agreement.
- The first group of seven hostages was released shortly after 8am local time. The hostages were transferred by Hamas to the Red Cross, which delivered them to Israeli forces inside Gaza.
- The other 13 hostages were released two hours later. Before the second group was released, Hamas militants connected them to their families in video calls and asked the families to send those calls to the Israeli press.
- The hostages were taken to a military base outside the Gaza Strip to be reunited with their families, and from there to hospitals in Israel to receive medical treatment.
The hostages all spent most of the past two years in underground tunnels, with very little food and water and almost no medical care for the wounds they suffered during Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks.
- Israeli officials are concerned that many of them may be in very poor health.
What they're saying: "Today, twenty families are spared the unbearable pain of not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again," White House envoy Steve Witkoff said in a statement.
- "But even in this moment of relief and happiness, my heart aches for those whose loved ones will not return alive. Bringing their bodies home is a must and an act of dignity and honors their memory forever."
Zoom in: As part of the agreement, Hamas must also retrieve the bodies of 28 deceased hostages, among them two Americans: Itay Chen and Omer Neutra.
- On Monday, Hamas gave Israel four bodies of hostages through the Red Cross. Israeli officials said they expected the a bigger number of bodies will be returned.
- Trump said in a meeting with the Egyptian president in Sharm el-Sheikh that Hamas is still searching for all the bodies of the dead hostages. He said Hamas only knows the locations of some of the bodies and stressed the search is taking place in coordination with Israel.
- Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that the fact Hamas returned only four bodies was a violation of the agreement and warned Israel would retaliate if it isn't remedied.
- Hamas claimed during the negotiations that it didn't know the exact locations of all the bodies of the dead hostages. In some cases, the group says, the militants guarding them were killed, or the bodies were buried under rubble.
- As part of the peace deal, a multinational task force has been established in order to share information on the possible locations of the deceased hostages and to conduct search operations inside Gaza.
Meanwhile, in return for the release of the hostages, Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails — all but two dozen of the Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel.
- In addition, Israel will release 1,700 Palestinians who were detained by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza after Oct. 7.
- Israel refused to release Hamas militants who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks and also to release a dozen Palestinian prisoners it sees as symbols, like Hamas military leader Ibrahim Hamed and Marwan Barghouti, the former Fatah leader in the West Bank.
More from Axios:
- Trump declares Gaza war over
- Trump plans leaders summit on Gaza during Egypt visit
- Trump to Axios: Gaza deal might be my biggest accomplishment
