Outside a suburban Skokie synagogue, Adrianne Burgher pulled her three sons close and choked back tears as they watched other children cut yellow ribbons off a tree as music in Hebrew pulsed from a speaker.

The ribbons represented the 20 Israeli hostages released by Hamas Monday as the first step in a delicate U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. Twenty-eight more ribbons will remain on the tree to represent the hostages who were killed in Hamas captivity. Four of their remains had been returned to Israel as of Monday, the Associated Press reported. The remainder of the bodies are meant to be returned as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

“It’s been a long time,” Burgher said. “Thank God that so many people have come home, but so many have been lost. ... I don’t think I processed it

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