Israel-Hamas War Ends But Humanitarian Crisis Rages. What Next For Gaza?

Last Updated:October 14, 2025, 11:11 IST

Israeli hostages were freed from Gaza and returned home on Monday. While their release ends the war, challenges remain, including recovering deceased hostages, and delivering aid.

Buses carrying Palestinians released from Israeli prisons under a Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal with Palestinian factions (Photo: AFP)

Freed Israeli hostages embraced their families and loved ones on Monday, beaming and crying with joy at the end of the captives’ two-year ordeal in Gaza.

Wrapped in blue and white Israeli flags, those returning waved and smiled as military helicopters landed them back in Israel, after militants freed the remaining 20 living hostages from the Palestinian territory under a US-backed ceasefire deal.

Many of the family members come at sunrise, carrying pictures of the hostages and waving Israeli flags bearing a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the movement calling for their release.

When the news broke that the first seven of the remaining hostages had been released on Monday, Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square broke out in cheers and song.

Israel later confirmed all surviving 20 hostages had returned to the country.

As the hostages were released by Hamas, US President Donald Trump declared the end of the two-year-long war that had upended the broader Middle East.

Hours later, Trump convened Muslim and European leaders in Egypt to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip and the possibility of a wider regional peace, even as Hamas and Israel, both absent from the gathering, are yet to agree on the next steps.

HOSTAGES FREED, BUT WHAT ALL REMAINS?

Though the ceasefire and partial Israeli withdrawal agreed last week halted one of Israel’s biggest offensives of the war, an all-out assault on Gaza City that was killing scores of people per day, formidable obstacles remain.

Among the immediate issues still to be resolved are recovering the remains of another 26 Israeli hostages believed to have died, and two whose fates are unknown.

While Hamas says recovering the bodies could take time as not all burial sites are known, Israel’s military said it had escorted four coffins containing the remains of deceased hostages to Israel and that those remains were being identified.

Additionally, aid supplies must be rushed into the Palestinian enclaves, where hundreds of thousands of people face famine.

According to a report with Reuters, the United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher underlined the need to “get shelter and fuel to people who desperately need it and to massively scale up the food and medicine and other supplies going in".

Beyond that, crucial issues have yet to be resolved, including how to govern and police Gaza, and the ultimate future of Hamas, which still rejects Israel’s demands to disarm.

Tensions have also been rising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Jewish settlements have expanded in land Palestinians envision as part of a future state.

Trump, speaking on his flight to the region, said Hamas had been given a temporary green light for fighters to keep order.

“They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time," the US President had said.

Though the Gaza war may have been over, as per Donald Trump’s announcement, it reshaped the Middle East through spillover conflicts, with Israel imposing damage in a 12-day war against Iran and campaigns against Tehran’s regional allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.

HAMAS RELEASES HOSTAGES

During their unprecedented 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and took them to Gaza.

Most of them, including several who were later confirmed dead, were handed over during two previous truces over the past two years of war.

However, Hamas continued to hold 47 hostages until the latest ceasefire came into effect.

The remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous conflict in 2014 were also being held in Gaza.

ALSO READ | Nepalese Student Bipin Joshi Believed Dead In Hamas Captivity, Hope Fades As All Survivors Return

Vani Mehrotra

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

News world Israel-Hamas War Ends But Humanitarian Crisis Rages. What Next For Gaza?

Read More