Crowds cheer as first three Israeli hostages released in ceasefire return to Israel

Three Israeli hostages who were kept in Gaza since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, were released on Sunday, hours after the long-awaited hostage exchange deal came into effect. Crowds flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, elated and relieved that progress had finally been made to return Hamas’s hostages home. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu faced immediate political backlash, as the country’s far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir resigned in protest of the ceasefire deal, which he called a “deal of defeat”, weakening Netanyahu’s governing coalition.