Hamas begins releasing Israeli hostages, as Trump lands in Israel

October 13, 2025 12:40 PM

Hamas begins releasing Israeli hostages, as Trump lands in Israel

Hamas handed over some of its last surviving Israeli hostages on Monday, a key step in ending two years of devastating conflict in Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who landed in Israel to address the parliament. With hundreds of cheering people gathered in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, Israel's military said it had received the first seven of 20 surviving hostages after their transfer out of Gaza by the Red Cross. "I am so excited. I am full of happiness. I...

Trump to be lauded in Israel as long-held hostages return home

October 13, 2025 8:43 AM

Trump to be lauded in Israel as long-held hostages return home

U.S. President Donald Trump will receive a hero's welcome in Israel's parliament on Monday as a fragile Gaza ceasefire he helped to broker enters a fourth day, with the expected release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners marking tentative steps in a conflict long resistant to resolution. Trump's Knesset speech follows two years of war sparked by a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people in Israel with 251 taken hostage. Israeli airstrikes and ground assaults ...

Pakistan rescues 155 hostages from train, dozens still held, sources say

March 12, 2025 11:32 AM

Pakistan rescues 155 hostages from train, dozens still held, sources say

Pakistani forces have rescued 155 passengers from a train that was hijacked by separatist fighters in the southwest of the country, security sources said on Wednesday, while the government said an operation was underway to rescue dozens still held hostage. Militants blew up a railway track and opened fire on the train on Tuesday as it travelled from Quetta, Balochistan's capital city, to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic armed group, claimed r...

Trump warns Hamas as US holds unprecedented talks for Gaza hostages

March 6, 2025 9:04 AM

Trump warns Hamas as US holds unprecedented talks for Gaza hostages

The United States broke a longstanding diplomatic taboo by holding secret talks with Hamas on securing the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza, Reuters reported on Wednesday, while President Donald Trump warned of "hell to pay" should the Palestinian militant group not comply. U.S. hostage affairs envoy Adam Boehler has the authority to talk directly with Hamas, the White House said when asked about the discussions, which broke with a decades-old policy against negotiating with groups that th...

Palestinians, who were forcibly displaced as a result of Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip for more than 15 months, try to get warm by lighting fire as they continue to wait at a point close to the Netzarim Corridor on al-Rashid Street to return to their homes in the north after the completion of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement on January 26, 2025 in Gaza City, Gaza. Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images

January 27, 2025 9:33 AM

Hamas to release three Israeli hostages as Israel allows Gazans to return home north

Palestinian militant group Hamas will hand over female Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud and two other hostages before Friday, mediator Qatar said on Sunday, and Israel said it would allow residents of the northern Gaza Strip to go back home early on Monday. In a statement, Qatar's foreign ministry also said Israel will in return allow displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza starting Monday morning. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that civilian Arbel Yehud, so...

Israeli hostage Qaed Farhan al-Qadi receives medical care at Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel on August 27, 2024. Photo by Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) /Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

August 28, 2024 10:38 AM

Israeli military says hostage rescued from Gaza tunnel in ‘complex operation’

Israeli special forces have recovered an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in southern Gaza in "a complex rescue operation", the military said on Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen. It said 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel who worked as a security guard on a kibbutz near the Gaza border, had been transferred to hospital and his condition was stable. Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Alkadi ...