Tranquility touches Gaza, Israel as hostages freed

THE REMAINING 20 LIVING ISRAELI HOSTAGES WERE HANDED OVER BY HAMAS, AS NEARLY 2,000 PALESTINIAN PRISONERS, DETAINEES WERE FREED BY ISRAEL

- REUTERS

A man greets a freed Palestinian prisoner released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip

(REUTERS)

Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza Monday under a ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as US President Donald Trump told Israel's parliament that peace had arrived in the Holy Land.

The Israeli military said it had received all 20 hostages confirmed to be alive, after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross. The announcement prompted cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv.

In Gaza, thousands of relatives, many weeping with joy, gathered at a hospital where buses brought home some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees to be freed by Israel as part of the accord.

“The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace,” Trump told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, saying a “long nightmare” for both Israelis and Palestinians was over.