Region's future is up in air

QUIET tension has been building for days in Israel ahead of a deal that its President Isaac Herzog said "will change the Middle East".

- BY CHRIS HUGHES

But after two years of bitter fighting and destruction, people find it hard to believe that peace is finally happening.

Gal Cohen, 29, friend of hostage soldier Matan Angrest, 22, told me in Hostage Square on Saturday: "This is a mix of huge excitement and fear. I feel like I can't breathe."

Mr Herzog may well be right in his belief that what will happen in the coming hours will change the region in a remarkable way.

How it changes depends in many ways on how much control the US has over how Israel responds to the freeing of the hostages.