After two years of heartache and many failed ceasefires, the family of hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal did not dare to believe their long nightmare was over.
Seized at the Nova music festival during the bloody October 7 attack and held mostly in underground tunnels, the emaciated 24-year-old was filmed twice during his captivity – once, cruelly, showing him watching someone else being given their freedom.
But he was finally released on Monday – one of 20 hostages freed after one of the bloodiest conflicts of this generation – amid scenes of joy and deep pain for families across both Israel and Palestine.
“How long we have dreamt of this day,” said his father Ilan, locked in a group family hug. “Thank you God. Thank you, God. Thank you God.”
In Tel Aviv, destroyed Gaza and the occupied West Bank, families were finally reunited, hugging and crying uncontrollably in scenes that would be repeated throughout the day.
In a deal brokered by Donald Trump, all 20 living Israeli hostages and captives were released back to their families and nearly 2,000 Palestinians were freed from Israeli prisons.
Among them were hundreds of Palestinians arrested in Gaza, who were sent back home to find only destruction and devastation.
Despite gaping holes in the US president’s 20-point plan for peace, and huge questions of what will happen to Gaza, the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, there were moments of real joy.
In Hostages Square, central Tel Aviv, thousands of supporters had gathered from midnight to await the moment they had been waiting two years for.
Spontaneous dance parties broke out in the streets, and shortly after 8am, grainy images of those held started to appear on massive screens set up in the square.
Thin, pale and mostly dressed in army fatigues, the now-familiar faces emerged from Red Cross vehicles and Israeli military helicopters into the sunlight.
Loud cheers rang out whenever Mr Trump – who spent a few hours in Israel being feted by an adoring audience at the Knesset before flying on to Egypt for a post-deal victory lap “summit of peace” – appeared on the screens.
He told Israeli lawmakers that “they’ve won”, adding: “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
A grinning Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Mr Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”, and he promised to work with him going forward.
Protesters who have taken to the streets every weekend to call on the Israeli prime minister to agree to a ceasefire deal described the feeling as “unbelievable”.
“It wouldn’t have happened if it was up to Netanyahu,” says Diti, 27, as another round of releases was announced on the loudspeakers.
“Hopefully, we will have a normal country and peace. Hopefully, Palestinians in Gaza can return to their lives again – we hope this is the beginning of peace.”
In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, families of the hundreds of released Palestinians also waited anxiously for news outside Israel’s notorious Ofer Prison.
One mother – who had not seen her son Nadir Dar Ahmed, sentenced to life in jail, for more than two years – dropped to the floor, head to the ground in tears when the buses finally appeared.
But their celebrations were curbed by Israeli security forces’ control. Palestinian families described soldiers raiding homes of relatives on the eve of their release, warning them not to celebrate – and even smashing decorations and furniture laid out for guests in advance.
Among those freed were over 150 life-sentence prisoners who were not permitted to go home but were deported to Egypt, Turkey or Qatar. Israel was reported to have imposed travel bans on a hundred relatives of the prisoners, effectively separating families.
Even that didn’t stop the moments of joy in central Ramallah. Weeping on the ground by the buses were the family of Dar Ahmed, released four years into a 20-year jail sentence for planning a stabbing in Jerusalem, an accusation he always denied.
“It’s an indescribable feeling,” says his sister Hidayah, explaining that the family had not seen him since the war began.
In Gaza, frantic families descended on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, scouring prisoner lists for news of their missing loved ones.
Of the roughly 1,700 Palestinians arrested in Gaza since 7 October, 22 were children. It is understood that all have been held without trial or conviction under the deeply controversial “unlawful combatant” law.
The Independent’s own investigation into the treatment of Palestinian detainees revealed evidence of abuse, torture, sexual violence and even deaths in detention.
Despite the destruction of the besieged enclave, which has been bombed into oblivion and where local authorities put the known death toll at 67,000, families still played patriotic songs, danced and cried when the first buses snaked through the crowds at 3pm.
At one point, one young man could be seen scaling the side of a bus and embracing a freed prisoner through the window of the moving vehicle.
But it was not all joy. Naseem al-Radea from northern Gaza, 30, arrested and held without charge since December 2023, returned to find almost his entire family killed and his home destroyed.
His wife, son, two daughters and mother-in-law all died in Israeli strikes. The only family left is his four-year-old daughter and his mother. “I left the prison today thinking of my family and of meeting them,” he said.
“Their image has never left my memory, and they were the first people I wished to meet. All the scenes of longing and meeting them have disappeared; all of that has become a mirage.
“I am now a prisoner of grief. This day has turned into a nightmare. My heart is filled with immeasurable pain.”
