Tel Aviv, 16 February 2025 (dpa/MIA) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Israel at the start of his Middle East visit, with a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first on his agenda on Sunday.

His visit comes immediately after three more Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip were released by their Palestinian Islamist captors on Saturday.

The three released men have spoken of physical and psychological maltreatment at the hands of their captors.

During the more than 16 months in the custody of Islamists, the hostages "endured physical abuse and were left in the dark as to the fate of their loved ones," the Times of Israel reported, citing interviews with several Hebrew TV channels.

Rubio's discussions with the Israeli leadership are likely to focus on the continuation of the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas militia.

Israel will be working in coordination with the United States to free the remaining captives "as quickly as possible" and is preparing for what comes next in every regard, according to Netanyahu's office.

Protests in Israel

While Netanyahu reportedly consulted internally about the future of the ceasefire agreement, around 1,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for the full implementation of the deal, according to the Times of Israel.

The protesters accused Netanyahu of wanting to thwart the continuation of the ceasefire to remain in power, the Times of Israel reported.

They fear for the fate of the remaining hostages, with 73 still being held in Gaza, of which 36 are presumed to be dead.

Reports of abuse of hostages

Meanwhile, Israeli media carried initial accounts from the three Israelis released on Saturday in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners.

The 36-year-old Sagui Dekel-Chen was reportedly tortured during interrogations by Hamas. According to Channel 12 TV, his body bears corresponding scars.

The man reportedly did not know for all these months whether his family survived the massacre by Hamas and other extremists from Gaza in Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in 1,200 dead and around 250 abducted to the Gaza Strip.

Just before his release, his captors reportedly told him that his wife had given birth to a daughter during his imprisonment, according to the broadcaster Kan. They gave him earrings for his wife, but he did not believe them, the reports said.

A video released by the Israeli military after his release showed Dekel-Chen in the arms of his weeping wife, who also revealed to him the name of the daughter: Shachar Mazal, from the Hebrew words for "dawn" and "luck."

The 29-year-old Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov did not know until his release that his father was killed in the October 7 massacre, the reports said, adding that he broke down in tears when he learned this from representatives of the Israeli military after his release.

According to further reports by the Times of Israel, the third released hostage, Iair Horn, 46, lost dozens of kilograms during captivity and received barely any medical care.

All three hostages were held most of the time in tunnels in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, only a few hundred metres from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz, the reports said, and they often suffered from hunger but also learned Arabic during their captivity.

Fourteen more abductees, including eight deceased, are to be released in the coming two weeks as part of the first phase of the deal. More living abductees are then to be freed in a second phase, but whether this second phase will actually be implemented is currently completely uncertain.

Rubio begins Middle East talks

Rubio is, meanwhile, scheduled to meet Netanyahu on Sunday morning, according to his schedule and later in the day also his counterpart Gideon Saar and President Isaac Herzog.

Before embarking on his journey, he had called on Arab states to present their proposals regarding the future of the Gaza Strip, after US President Donald Trump caused unrest with his plan for the permanent resettlement of the approximately 2 million inhabitants to Arab states.

According to Trump's vision, the devastated Gaza Strip is to be transformed under US control into a "Riviera of the Middle East."

After Israel, Rubio plans to travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.