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Watch live: all hostages freed as Trump addresses Israeli parliament

By Chris Paine

• All 20 hostages that had been held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023, have now been handed over. The Red Cross transferred the hostages into Israel.
• US President Donald Trump was set to address Israel’s parliament. Earlier, he was greeted on the tarmac by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Air Force One touched down in Tel Aviv.
• The IDF released the first images of freed hostages, including twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, 28.

• The handover of 28 other Israeli hostages – 26 dead and two whose fate is unknown – was expected to follow, according to Reuters.
• Hamas earlier published a list of more than 1900 Palestinian prisoners it said would be released as part of the ceasefire agreement.
• The families of the hostages earlier travelled to Re’im in Israel, not far from Gaza, in anticipation of their release.

• Israelis packed out Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, many since before dawn, to celebrate the occasion.

7.52pm

While Israel celebrates, Hamas fighters emerge in Gaza

By David Crowe

London: The celebrations in Israel are confirmation that Hamas has met its first test under the ceasefire agreement, but Hamas fighters are also preparing to assert their influence over Gaza at the same time the hostages walk to freedom. There are signs that Hamas has deployed fighters to parts of Gaza on Monday, local time, even though the goal of the peace proposal is for the group to disarm.

Footage from Reuters shows dozens of Hamas fighters at a hospital in southern Gaza. According to the Reuters analysis of this footage, one of the armed man is wearing the insignia of the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and a shoulder patch that identifies him as a member of an elite “Shadow Unit” that guarded hostages.

Control of Gaza remains contested. Israeli forces have withdrawn, as agreed, but they are still positioned in about half the territory. Hamas has mobilised 7000 of its fighters, according to the BBC, and has made no commitment to disarm.

Even a decision by some Hamas leaders to disarm, and perhaps to go into exile, would not bind those who want to continue their stated mission of destroying the state of Israel.

7.25pm

‘A new beginning’: Trump arrives at the Knesset

By Angus Thompson

Donald Trump has arrived at the Knesset with Benjamin Netanyahu, where he has immediately sat down to sign a large guestbook, before showing it to the cameras.

Inside, he wrote: “This is my great honour, a great and beautiful day, a new beginning.”

He is due to speak to Israeli parliamentarians imminently.

7.13pm

First images of freed hostages

By Angus Thompson and Associated Press

The IDF has released the first images of some of the first seven hostages released by Hamas today.

Pictured below is Alon Ohel, 24, speaking to an IDF member. Ohel, who also has German and Serbian citizenship, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival from a mobile bomb shelter along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli who was killed  in captivity in August 2024.

Below are fraternal twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 28, seen embracing following their release. The pair were taken from their homes in kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, during the October 7 attack. Seventeen others were also abducted from Kfar Aza, but the Berman twins are the only hostages from the kibbutz who remained in captivity until today.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, shown below talking to an IDF soldier, and appearing to be in good spirits, was among those abducted from the Nova music festival, while his brother managed to escape.

In the past year, he’s appeared in two videos released by Hamas. In one, he appears alongside his childhood friend, David, with militants filming them pleading for their freedom in a vehicle while they watch three other hostages on stage being released to the Red Cross.

Eitan Mor, 25, below, was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival, where he helped evacuate people injured in the attack. Mor’s parents helped found the Tikva Forum, a loosely organised group of hostage families. They advocated for military pressure, not an immediate ceasefire or hostage release deal, as the best chance for bringing the hostages home. That stance has put Mor’s father at odds with many of the other families of hostages.

7.02pm

Remaining 13 hostages have been handed over

By Angus Thompson

All remaining hostages of the 20 to be handed over today have been retrieved, according to the BBC and CNN.

The second cohort of 13 freed hostages is now with the Red Cross and en route to be delivered into the hands of Israeli forces.

Once they have been handed over, they will be medically assessed, and either reunited with their families at Re’im IDF base, or flown to hospital if they need of urgent medical care.

Earlier, The New York Times reported the remaining 13 were being allowed to speak to their parents by video calls from Gaza.

“Everything is fine,” Rom Braslavski, 21, told his parents over the phone.

6.44pm

Mystery surrounds fate of two hostages

By Bloomberg and Associated Press

Earlier today, Hamas published a list of the 20 hostages it would release as part of the peace deal with Israel.

However, two names were missing and their circumstances are unknown: Tamir Nimrodi, a 20-year-old IDF soldier, and Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese farmhand taken from kibbutz Alumim.

Bipin Joshi, 24

Joshi arrived in Israel from his native Nepal a month before the Hamas attack. He is the only non-Israeli hostage believed to be alive in Gaza. He came to Israel on a student exchange to work and study agriculture at kibbutz Alumim on the Gaza border. Ten of the 17 Nepali students in the program were killed during the attack.

Joshi, who was able to throw a number of live grenades out of the bomb shelter where they were hiding, was injured and kidnapped. Joshi’s sister, 17-year-old Pushpa Joshi, has regularly travelled eight hours each direction on buses to Kathmandu from her home in western Nepal to lobby officials to secure her brother’s release. In August, his family travelled to Israel to meet President Isaac Herzog and join families demonstrating in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square.

Tamir Nimrodi, 20

Nimrodi was kidnapped from Erez, a crossing on the northern border of Gaza that had been the main route for people entering and leaving the territory. He had been serving with the Israeli defence body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza. Nimrodi was kidnapped with two other soldiers by militants who walked them to the Gaza gate and forced them to cross.

Israel confirmed the deaths of the two soldiers who were kidnapped with Nimrodi. There has been no sign of life from Nimrodi in the two years since he was seen in footage walking into Gaza in shorts and a T-shirt without his glasses. Herut Nimrodi, his mother, has said she doesn’t know what is worse: to think he has been killed in captivity, or that he’s alive but being held in terrible conditions. “I’m scared to even imagine,” she said.

6.38pm

Trump expecting to meet freed hostages: Vance

By Angus Thompson

“The war is over, OK?” Donald Trump told reporters travelling with him aboard Air Force One. “I think people are tired of it.”

Now the US president has landed in Israel, what can we expect from his visit to mark this globally significant day?

Trump is scheduled to speak to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and he is also expected to meet families of hostages.

However, Vice President JD Vance told NBC’s Meet the Press program on Sunday that the president also expected to meet the freed hostages themselves.

“You can’t say [it will occur] exactly the moment they will be released, but we have every expectation – that’s why the president is going – that he will be greeting the hostages early next week,” Vance said.

6.20pm

Hostages call families for first time in two years

By Stephanie Peatling

Matan Zangauker, one of the hostages still awaiting release, can be seen speaking with his mother in a video released by a group representing the hostages’ families.

The video shows Einav Zangauker holding up a phone and speaking to another person who is holding their phone, which shows the call with Matan.

Zangauker says, according to CNN and the Times of Israel:

Matan, you won’t believe it, my love, you’re going to be OK. There’s no more war. You’re all coming home. All of you, sweetheart. Sweetheart, it’s over. That’s it – you’re coming home, my love, I love you.”

Ariel and David Cunio, and Nimrod Cohen also held video calls with their relatives on Monday morning, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Hamas terrorists gave the hostages their phones in order to hold the video calls, Army Radio reported.

Silvia Cohen, mother of Ariel and David, said she did not answer the first call because she did not recognise the phone number, the Post reported.

6.14pm

Second group of hostages about to be released

By AP

The Israeli military says the Red Cross is now on its way to an as yet unnamed point in southern Gaza to take custody of a second group of living hostages.

The military has not yet said how many people will be in the second group.

Seven men were released earlier today. Another 13 living hostages are still to be released from captivity in Gaza.

6.11pm

Wong says Trump deserves congratulations

By Stephanie Peatling

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has praised the efforts of US President Donald Trump as he arrived in Israel.

“This is a singular achievement by President Trump,” Senator Wong told ABC television on Monday evening.

“Only the president of the United States could have brought this about. He deserves congratulations … He has brought the conflict to a pause and, hopefully, peace.”

Senator Wong said it was “extraordinarily moving” to see the start of the release of the remaining living hostages but asked people remember the families of the hostages who have died.

6.10pm

Hostage supporters celebrate in Melbourne

By Alexander Darling

In Melbourne, about 200 people gathered at the Beth Weizmann Jewish community centre in Caufield this afternoon, where a big screen has been erected to broadcast the hostage release.

Nearby, elated attendees took photos in front of a wall mural featuring the hostages’ faces. Some people proudly wore MAGA caps while children attached necklaces with the words “Our hearts are together – bring them home now” to an olive tree.

Ari Jacob performed a song on piano for those gathered and became deeply emotional as the speakers began. He was in Israel on October 7, 2023, and caught one of the last planes out of the country that night, on his way to visit family in Australia.

“I didn’t expect to get so emotional, but I feel like this weight is slowly rising off my chest,” he said.