ISRAELI OCCUPIED AND STARVED GAZA, 13 Oct. - (AN) - Hams has released all 20 hostages today.

 

With nervous anticipation, relatives of the captives watched as a Red Cross convoy of white land cruisers snaked its way through the gates of a Gaza warehouse carrying the first of the hostages, who were released in three batches over the course of the morning.

 

Hamas gunmen held back the crowds of curious Palestinian onlookers who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the hostages. Most were silent – perhaps contemplating the enormous price ordinary Palestinians had paid for the captives finally leaving their devastated territory.

 

hat devastation was all too clear as the convoy wound its way through the rubble of a war that has reduced Gaza to a wasteland of famine, death and desperation towards the Netzarim Corridor where Israeli military units were waiting to receive the hostages.

 

Mention of the Israeli prime minister’s name by Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s peace envoy, triggered a chorus of boos there on Monday.

 

The crowds who began assembling in the square in the pre-dawn hours on Monday to watch the handover of the last living hostages hope this will be the final time they need to gather.

 

There was no doubting what the majority thought of Mr Trump. Variations of his trademark Maga cap abounded in Tel Aviv.

 

Mr Trump, who was later to address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, made it clear who called the shots when he later insisted that Mr Netanyahu join him at a high-level regional summit later on Monday in Egypt, an engagement the Israeli prime minister had previously shown no interest in attending.

 

For the US president, there is no doubt he is a man who feels he is destined to transform the Middle East and is now determined not to let Mr Netanyahu stand in the way of his historical mission.

 

“This is my great honour,” he wrote in the Knesset’s guestbook. “A great and beautiful day. A new beginning.”

 

Hyperbole is a key characteristic of the Trump administration. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, likened the sense of occasion on Monday to “a moment like the moon landing where time freezes as we watch this historic moment”.

 

Many are sceptical that the hope and promise that greeted the release of the hostages will translate into a genuine new dawn for the Middle East.

 

Yet, as Mr Trump and world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, gather in Egypt to push the peace process forward, there is, for the first time in many years, an opportunity to advance a lasting solution to a conflict that has subsumed the Middle East.

 

So far, the script has gone according to Mr Trump’s ambitious plan. The hostages are home. Palestinian prisoners are returning to Gaza or heading into exile. Aid is beginning to return to the shattered Strip.

 

Far greater challenges lie ahead, but for the moment, there is hope for the future and, in Israel at least, relief in the present.

 

If Oct 7, 2023 was a moment of infamy for the Jewish state, Oct 13, 2025 marks the beginning of a period of healing, and just possibly the dawn of the new era Mr Trump seems convinced he can deliver.- (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/13 October 2025  - - -