Israelis celebrated Monday as word spread that the 20 living Israeli hostages had been released by Hamas to the Red Cross, and as U.S. President Donald Trump touched down in Israel ahead of his speech to the Knesset.

“Trump arrives as a victor, and righteously so,” observed an analyst on Israel’s Army Radio.

In keeping with the agreement Trump announced in the White House exactly two weeks before, Israel released 250 Palestinian terror convicts and loaded them onto buses, awaiting the Israeli hostages’ return.

In Gaza, the 20 hostages were freed in three separate groups and handed over to the Red Cross, then to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The first seven arrived in Israel; several were able to call ahead to their families.

President Trump watched the releases from Air Force Once,

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