'Hostages square'

Joy unconfined in Tel Aviv as years of torment end with captives being freed at last

- Daniel Boffey

The estimated 65,000 people in "hostages square" in Tel Aviv yesterday heard it before they saw it. Like so many sunflowers, their faces turned up to search the clear blue morning sky for the source of the sound. Then it swept into view from the west, from the direction of Gaza.

A helicopter, military brown, was on the way to Ichilov hospital a few hundred metres away.

But it diverted. It circled around the crowd giving each person below a view, and then tilted to its right, in an apparent salute to the cheering, waving, smiling faces below.

At the door of the helicopter, visible to the keen-eyed, was the outline of a figure almost hanging out, seemingly straining to get closer to the jubilant crowd below.

It appeared to be one of the final 20 live hostages released that morning after two years in Hamas captivity. He used his hands to make a shape: a heart.

About eight helicopters in all swept by, not all of them diverting to put on a show. Some medical cases may have been more urgent than others.

But each received a raucous cheer on what was certainly a highly emotional day for Israel, and one that so many dearly hope will prove to be historic.

The square, nothing much to look at, on top of a car park close to the Israel Defense Forces headquarters, has been from where the campaign to bring the hostages home has been led. The question now facing Israel is whether the release can lead to a lasting peace with Palestine.

"I always say that I hope so, you know, but this neighbourhood is not so much friendly," said Ayelet Lantzer, 63.