“This is a day of tension, anticipation, hope, great pain and joy”: The Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch, and his team have completed preparations to receive the 20 living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity — 737 days after the October 7 massacre.
This is how the dramatic hours are expected to unfold, during which the first phase of the agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war will be completed:
“We already completed on Friday night our preparations and the IDF’s preparations on the ‘yellow line’ (the first withdrawal line from the Gaza Strip ). We are at full readiness,” Hirsch said. For now, the release of the living hostages is supposed to begin on Monday morning, but Israel is prepared for the possibility that the move could be brought forward.
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The Red Cross is ready to pick up the hostages from Hamas in Gaza and deliver them to Israeli care
(Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)
“A number of preparatory actions were carried out by our forces in various aspects both vis-à-vis the Red Cross and more broadly by the IDF in case a move forward is required or for additional actions,” Hirsch said. The Prime Minister’s Office updated that the hostages’ release will indeed begin at 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
The Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Persons added: “We are to be informed that the Red Cross convoy, composed of a number of vehicles, will reinforce its capabilities. This is a convoy that will number between eight and 10 vehicles, including jeeps, a minibus and also an ambulance if needed. I am in continuous contact with the head of the Red Cross delegation; they received all the means they requested from us.”
Collecting the hostages
According to the plan, the Red Cross convoy will pick up the hostages at a location coordinated with Hamas. The convoy will then link up with IDF forces, and from there the hostages will be taken to the Re’im camp in the Negev. “What is clear is that there will be one release wave of all 20 hostages,” Hirsch said. “We have teams that will carry out the initial contact. These are specialists in the psychological field and in providing a sense of security.”
At the Re’im camp the hostages’ family members and relatives will be waiting. Each hostage will be received into a separate room, initially for basic first arrangements. The hostages will each undergo an initial medical check to assess their condition and determine whether urgent immediate action is required, and then they will meet their relatives.
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The 48 living and dead hostages remaining in Gaza
(Photos: IDF Spokesperson, courtesy of the families)
“The Re’im compound underwent a process of re-preparation, a significant enlargement, because this is a release of all the living hostages at once, and not as before in smaller groups,” Hirsch said. “We prepared to receive all the families, and each of them will be given the necessary conditions and the privacy required with their loved one.”
Subsequently, freed captives will be flown by Air Force helicopters to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer (which will receive 10 of them), Ichilov in Tel Aviv (which will receive five) and Beilinson in Petah Tikva (which will also receive five). “The plan is to provide each of them with a ‘safe room’ — a completely closed area for the family alone and for the medical team with the hostage,” Hirsch said. “There will be an orderly process of medical checks, assessment of their condition and entry into a rehabilitation program with all the experts.”
Hirsch added: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally came on Friday to receive a briefing and review, and to check the preparedness of the health system and the directorate and of the IDF to receive the living hostages in the hospitals. He gave several instructions on the matter, and we are prepared for this process.” Israeli teams also prepared for possible evacuation to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva and Barzilai in Ashkelon, in case an urgent transfer of hostages is needed.
Hirsch further noted: “The Hostages and Missing Persons Directorate has completed its preparations for reception at the hospitals as well, and is assisting the families together with the IDF in the required arrangements in terms of transporting the families, placing them in the right location and all the conditions they need. From the moment they are here, we will support the hostages and the families. They will receive the package that was approved in the Knesset in orderly legislation with disability percentages, payments and everything that the state supports them with extensively.”
The dead hostages
Under the agreement between Israel and Hamas, the terror organization is also supposed to release the 28 dead hostages. Israeli estimates are that only about half of them will be returned on Monday.
“From the moment the living hostages arrive at the Re’im camp, the Red Cross will adapt the vehicles and prepare for the return of dead hostages. From there they are expected to collect coffins of deceased hostages in vehicles adapted for that purpose. I cannot state my estimate, but certainly a number of deceased hostages are expected to be released and transferred to us already tomorrow,” according to Hirsch.
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Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch
(Photo: Noam Moskowitz, Knesset Spokesperson)
He added that the dead hostages "will be received by our forces, and there the coffins will be wrapped in the Israeli flag. A military ceremony of salute, honor and prayers will be held as defined and as was done in previous receptions. At that ceremony there will be an IDF honor guard, a military chaplain will lead prayers, and the coffins will be loaded onto vehicles already prepared for the mission. The convoy will then proceed to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir, where the identification process will take place.”
After identification is certain, the Hostages and Missing Persons Directorate will forward the information to the families of the deceased. “We will also inform the families of the deceased hostages who were not identified, so that they know that their loved one has still not been returned, and we will continue our effort to bring them back,” Hirsch said. “The directorate is also prepared to assist in holding funerals according to the families’ requests.”
And what about the deceased hostages who will not be returned tomorrow? “We agreed in the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh on the establishment of a task force that will be composed of Israel, the United States, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the Red Cross," according to Hirsch. "The task force will operate immediately after we know which deceased hostages have been returned and who has not been returned. From that moment the force will begin to act vis-à-vis Hamas, including activity on the ground to reach the points that we will share.”
He added: “We demanded a 100% effort to obtain information from Hamas, in order to operate according to the procedure of a special investigative team that will reach locations and carry out searches and scans in places where engineering activity will be required to clear the rubble. We are coordinated with Red Cross experts, and intend to act as quickly as we can to complete the return of all deceased hostages who are not returned tomorrow. This will happen continuously and persistently.”
“We will define what 100% effort means, because we have clear expectations. There are things that must be done so that we can reach our dead. This means, first of all, sharing information — we will demand details about each of the deceased hostages and request that they share information about what they know, and we will share information regarding what we know. I placed a closure on certain areas in Gaza, where we will not allow any infrastructure or rehabilitation activities even during the ceasefire period. If there is a place where, in our assessment, hostages were buried, interred or hidden — we will not allow anyone to enter there and damage the site. We have not yet received information about the deceased hostages who will be handed over to us.”
Hirsch recalled that among the 48 hostages are also four foreign nationals — two from Thailand, one from Nepal and one from Tanzania. “For me, the central thing is to ensure the return process safely and perfectly, and to be ready to deal with unexpected events,” said Hirsch. “Even tomorrow the mission is not over, the mission is not complete. I am focused on what has not been completed. We must ensure that the ‘Returning Home’ operation is carried out successfully and smoothly. The mission will not be completed until all our hostages are home.”
Regarding the security prisoners who will be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for the hostages’ return, Hirsch said: “There will be no further changes to the prisoners’ list. Only when all 20 living hostages are with us will permission be given for the buses with the prisoners to move. We are transferring 15 bodies of terrorists to Hamas for every coffin of one of our deceased hostages.”