Joyous scenes have greeted the release of 20 Israeli hostages by Hamas, and the arrival of the first batch of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees released by Israel, under Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan .

The US president declared the two-year war in Gaza “is over” and, to a standing ovation in the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, said today is "a day of profound joy and soaring hope” and “the historic dawn of a new Middle East".

Who are the released Israeli hostages?

The 20 Israeli hostages, released in two batches this morning, are all men and more than half of them had been taken seized by Hamas at the Nova desert festival on 7 October 2023.

They included Evyatar David, who was shown emaciated, and digging what he said was his own grave, in a video released over the s

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