Tel Aviv, 13 October 2025 (dpa/MIA) - The remaining living hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been freed after 738 days in captivity, implementing a crucial step of a US peace plan to end the war in Gaza.

In a second handover on Monday, the Israeli military confirmed that 13 of the captives taken from Israel on October 7, 2023 were transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Shortly beforehand, a first group of seven hostages had been returned to Israel.

According to Israeli media, all the released hostages are in "good condition."

The Israeli military said they would be transferred to the Re'im military base for medical checks, showers and clothing changes, before being reunited with their families. They will then be flown to hospitals for further treatment.

The release of the hostages is to be followed later by the handover of bodies of the remaining 28 deceased hostages, a process that Israel does not expect to be completed on Monday despite the 72-hour deadline agreed as part of the ceasefire.

In exchange, Israel is set to free around 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians.

The exchanges between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group are the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire agreed by the sides in Egypt last week after two years of war, and first announced by US President Donald Trump.

Hostages telephone with families

Before their release, some of the hostages were able to talk to their relatives by video call.

For many of the hostages, it was their first contact with relatives in more than two years of captivity, during which they were completely cut off from the outside world.

"I could not hear anything, but I saw them and that is enough," said the mother of hostages David and Ariel Cunio after speaking with her sons.

The videos are seen as propaganda for Hamas, allowing the Islamist group to present itself as humane. In some footage, Hamas members can be seen in the background.

The group also faced propaganda accusations during macabre handover ceremonies of hostages earlier this year.

To avoid such publicity, Monday's handovers were occurring without ceremonies or media presence.

Crowds gathered in central Tel Aviv's "Hostage Square" to watch the return of the hostages on large screens.

"You are coming home — all of you are coming home," said Einav Zangauker, the mother of a hostage, in tears, according to the Times of Israel. "There is no more war."

Hamas said on Monday it had done everything in its power to ensure the survival of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, claiming it had “made every effort to preserve the lives of the [Israeli] prisoners.”

However, freed hostages have described brutal conditions during captivity — including beatings, abuse, inadequate food and water, and confinement in tunnels beneath war zones. Reports have also emerged of sexual violence and forced nudity.

Trump touches down in Israel

Trump arrived in Israel on Monday morning to meet families of hostages and address lawmakers in the Knesset before travelling to Egypt for a summit on Gaza.

Trump was greeted at Ben Gurion International Airport by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, television images showed.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on the way over, Trump declared that the war between Israel and Hamas "is over."

Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi will co-chair a meeting later on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The event aims to consolidate the fragile ceasefire that Trump helped broker and advance long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, according to the Egyptian presidency.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and UN Secretary General António Guterres have confirmed their attendance.

Further steps envisioned under the plan include a complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Gaza Strip, an international stabilization force and the disarmament of Hamas.

Hamas on Monday emphasized that it is committed to the ceasefire agreement.

"We declare our commitment to the agreement and its associated timetables, as long as the occupation [Israel] adheres to them," the the group's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.

The group said Israel had "surrendered" in the war after failing to free the hostages through military pressure.

The war in Gaza began after the deadliest attack in Israel's history, when Hamas and other Palestinian militants carried out a cross-border assault on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 others to Gaza.

More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent conflict, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in figures seen as credible by the UN. Most of the coastal strip has been reduced to rubble.

Photo: EPA