Some of them have been waiting for this moment for two years. Following the release by Hamas of twenty Israeli hostages this Monday, October 13, the State of Israel published, on the social network X, the first images of the former captives.
Images in which you can see six men, visibly very thin and exhausted but with a smile on their faces for some, together with the Israeli Red Cross teams, in charge of the hostage exchanges within the framework of the ceasefire between the Jewish State and Hamas.
“Welcome home”
“We were waiting for this moment but there is still sadness for those who do not return and for the almost 2,000 dead of the war, two years of madness that are ending… But it is a beautiful day, the one we have been waiting for for two years,” Ronny Edry, a 54-year-old teacher, told AFP.
The 20 hostages, released on the fourth day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, were kidnapped on October 7, 2023 during the bloody attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, which triggered the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The first hostages had been released, out of a total of 251 kidnapped, during previous truces.
This Monday morning, a first group of seven hostages was handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross and then another of 13.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, dozens of people began to gather before dawn around a screen, to follow the first premieres live.
Some had serious faces, others smiled, many hugged each other while the song Habayta (“at home,” in Hebrew) played on a loop over the speakers.
“Welcome home,” said the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
For French President Emmanuel Macron, “peace is becoming possible for Israel, Gaza and the region.”
Source: BFM TV
