All of them have been homeless for nearly two years as some were detained by Israel, while others by the Palestinian Hamas Movement. As both the parties recently agreed to implement the first phase of a ceasefire deal, a hostage-prisoner swap took place between Israel and Hamas on October 13, 2025. Images capturing their release, emotional reunions with loved ones and also their joy, as well as tears, have spread across the globe.

As the hostages and prisoners returned home after a long period of captivity, wives met their husbands, while sons hugged their mothers and fiancés met their partners with tearful eyes. Several buses carrying some of the released Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah in the West Bank on October 13. At the same time, Hamas released all the Israeli hostages and sent them to Tel Aviv. While there has been relief over the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the emotional landscape is complex and tinged with pain, fear and uncertainty over the future. Earlier, the Israeli forces pulled out from the war-torn Palestinian territory, with the ceasefire coming into effect and stopping the hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Palestinians were seen returning to their war-torn homes after the ceasefire came into effect on October 10 afternoon. Many spent the first night in their damaged homes, but without fear and in peace. Upon their arrival in Gaza on October 13 afternoon, many Palestinians discovered that thousands of people gathered outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, to welcome them.

Interestingly, Israel does not want the Palestinians to celebrate the release of Hamas terrorists or to give credit to the Palestinian Movement for their release. For Palestinians, prisoners are a symbol of their resistance as they experienced harsh treatment by the Israelis and their sufferings have a different narrative altogether. Some of the Palestinian prisoners were so weak that they required help to reach their home. Talking to the BBC, a medic said that some Palestinian detainees had injuries from beatings they received prior to their release from Israeli custody. The BBC reported that around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees returned to Gaza and West Bank on October 13, 2025. The Israeli prison authorities have claimed that they also released 198 Palestinians from detention centres who returned to Gaza in two groups.

Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv on October 12 evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu stressed: “This is an emotional evening, an evening of tears, an evening of joy, because tomorrow our children will return to our borders.” He also urged his countrymen to unite after the hostage release, stating: “Tomorrow is the beginning of a new path – a path of rebuilding, a path of healing, and, I hope, a path of united hearts.”

Shortly after the hostage-prisoner exchange, US President Donald John Trump arrived in Tel Aviv and addressed the Israeli Parliament. He also visited a hospital to meet some of the freed hostages. Later, the US President left for Egypt to attend the Gaza Peace Summit, aimed at ending the two-year-long war in the Gaza Strip. President Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi co-hosted the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, President Trump signed a Gaza ceasefire document, alongside key mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, in the presence of UN Secretary General António Guterres, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, European Council President António Costa, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and other top world leaders.

It may be noted that Israel rejected any role in Gaza for the internationally backed Palestinian Authority (PA), whose leader, Mahmoud Abbas, arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh just before the gathering. Another important issue is to raise funds for rebuilding Gaza. The World Bank (WB) and Egypt’s post-war plan have estimated that reconstruction and recovery of the Gaza Strip would cost more than USD 50 billion. Cairo has decided to host an early Recovery and Reconstruction Conference for Gaza in November 2025 to discuss this particular issue.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das