Revised deadline for return of all hostages announced

The hostages will be freed without the humiliating “handover ceremonies” that characterized the previous series of releases.

By JNS Staff

The 48 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip are expected to return home by 6 a.m. on Oct. 13, two years and one week after they were kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists in the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel’s Kan Reshet Bet radio reported the revised deadline, as did Al Jazeera and other media outlets. The Qatari station cited a document outlining the implementation stages of the Trump plan for ending the war.

While previous rounds of hostage releases were characterized by humiliating “handover ceremonies” carried out by Gazan terrorist groups, this time, according to the document, the hostages’ return should take place without any such proceedings.

The flow of supplies into the Strip will begin immediately, with at least 600 trucks entering the territory daily.

Humanitarian aid operations will resume under the oversight of the United Nations and other international organizations.

The first hostages could be redeemed at any time on Sunday, with the Red Cross handling their release from Gaza into Israel, according to the Al Jazeera report.

An Egyptian delegation, accompanied by Red Cross representatives, will visit prisons in Israel to ensure the release of Palestinian terrorists as agreed in the ceasefire terms, the report added.

Israel has agreed to release 250 Palestinians serving long terms, and another 1,700 Gazans detained during the war. Their release will take place after all 48 of the Israeli abductees are redeemed.

Twenty hostages are believed to be alive, with 26 presumed dead and the fate of two more unknown, according to Israeli estimates.

One of the bodies is that of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in action in 2014.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Hamas was “getting them now. They’re in some pretty rough places under earth … where only a few people know where they are.

“They’re also getting the bodies,” he continued. “Approximately 28 bodies. Some of these bodies are being unearthed as we speak.”

Trump added that Israelis were “dancing” in the streets when news of the ceasefire was announced, as were people in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

The president said he was going to travel to the Middle East and address the Knesset, followed by a possible trip to Cairo.

“Everyone wants this deal to happen,” he said.

Trump said he believes that the ceasefire will hold.

“Hopefully you’re going to have great success, I call it everlasting success. I think you’re going to have tremendous success, and Gaza is going to be rebuilt. And you have some very wealthy countries over there, and it would take a small fraction of their wealth to do that, and I think they want to do it,” he said.

“They’re all tired of the fighting. Don’t forget, you had Oct. 7, which was a horrible day, but Hamas has lost 58,000 people. That’s big retribution. I think they’re all tired of fighting. This is beyond Gaza; this is peace in the Middle East, and it is a beautiful thing.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff was seen visiting an Israel Defense Forces base in Gaza to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops according to the ceasefire terms, Fox News and Reuters reported on Saturday.

Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin posted a photo of Witkoff alongside Israeli military personnel, including IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.

The first stage of the ceasefire came into effect on Friday. It could end the war that started a little over two years ago, when Gazan terrorists murdered some 1,200 people in Israeli communities along the border and kidnapped 251 into Gaza, in the deadliest single-day terror attack in Israel’s history.