Reunion, Freedom: Israeli Families Burst Into Tears As Hostages Return From Gaza | Videos

Last Updated:October 14, 2025, 13:00 IST

Freed Israeli hostages reunited with their families after two years in Hamas captivity, many breaking down in tears. Videos of their reunions flooded social media.

Cheers erupted as Hamas freed all surviving hostages on October 13 (Photo: AFP)

Israelis on Monday celebrated the return of the last surviving hostages from Gaza, a defining exchange in the fragile ceasefire that has paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Palestinian prisoners were also released by Israel as part of the ceasefire deal.

Their faces stared down from every street corner in Israel on posters now sun-faded and ripped. Their stories, told by anguished family members, are almost as well-known as celebrities. They are civilians and soldiers, fathers and sons. Some were at the Nova music festival, where almost 400 people were killed and dozens kidnapped.

Less than an hour after the hostages were released, social media was flooded with emotional reunion videos of hostages with their families and loved ones.

One of the videos showed a hostage running towards his family as they came to meet him, holding blue and white Israeli flags.

Another video showed 27-year-old Segev Kalfon, who met his family after 738 days in Hamas captivity. According to reports, his family did not know he had survived the October 7 attack until February, when they heard from a released hostage that he was alive.

Another video showed two hostages meeting their family members.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped.

The fighting has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children, and displaced around 90 per cent of the Gaza population of some 2 million.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties in Gaza.

Prior to Monday’s release, there were 48 hostages held in Gaza, including the body of one soldier from a previous war. Israel had determined that at least 25 of the hostages were killed on October 7, 2023, or died while in captivity.

Under the ceasefire agreement that took effect last Friday, the remaining hostages were to be released within 72 hours. Israel released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

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

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.

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