Photo: Collected

TEL AVIV, Oct 9, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Thousands of jubilant Israelis gathered 
in a Tel Aviv square Thursday, hopeful for the return of hostages held in 
Gaza, after two years of fear and worry.

Many wore stickers reading "They're coming back", waving Israeli and US flags 
and clutching photos of the hostages after Israel and Hamas reached a hostage 
release and truce deal in a major step towards ending the war.

A group of beaming Israelis sang, clapped and jumped in a circle in Hostages 
Square, which has been the scene of weekly rallies calling for the captives' 
return.

"We have been waiting for this day for 734 days. We cannot imagine being 
anywhere else this morning," said Laurence Yitzhak, 54, a Tel Aviv resident.

"It's a great joy -- an immense relief mixed with anxiety, fear and sorrow 
for the families who haven't and won't get to experience this joy," she said.

"As I speak to you, I get goosebumps... It's too beautiful, and we cannot 
help but think of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for these 
hostages," she told AFP.

US President Donald Trump announced that both sides had agreed to a ceasefire 
and a hostage-prisoner exchange programme as part of a 20-point plan he had 
proposed last month.

The formal agreement is expected to be signed later Thursday in Egypt, a key 
mediator alongside the United States and Qatar.

"There are no words to describe the feeling today. It's indescribable, like 
spontaneous joy, excitement, tears," said Rachel Peery, 49, an employee in 
the tech sector.

"We all came here from the office because we are just unable to work. It's a 
day that the entire nation has been waiting for, for two years, every second, 
every day."

- 'What hope feels like' -

Businessman Gyura Dishon was equally jubilant that the hostages were coming 
home.

"It's unbelievable... You couldn't stop crying," he said.

"It's like something that you wouldn't believe can happen and you were 
wishing for it to happen and then it's coming true all of a sudden."

The deal could free the remaining living hostages within days, in a major 
step toward ending the two-year war.

Of the 251 people abducted during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack which 
sparked the war, militants still hold 47 in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli 
military says are dead.

Hamas's assault on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly 
civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,194 people, 
according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the 
United Nations considers credible.

In Jerusalem, a newsagent told AFP he supported the release of the hostages, 
"but I am against ending the war".

"They started something, they must pay the heavy price," he said.

A man praying to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot said it was a "wonderful 
feeling" and something that "should have been done a long time ago".

"This is not a happy ending," he said. "We have lost many good people. But it 
was the right thing to do."

In Tel Aviv, Noam Ekhaus, a 36-year-old photographer and neuroscience 
researcher said she woke up in the middle of the night, saw the news, and 
went straight to Hostages Square.

"I can't just celebrate at home alone," she said.

"I haven't been smiling like this in a while and I don't think that I'm the 
only one," she added.

"I'm walking down the street and I'm feeling something different and I'm 
seeing something different and this is what hope feels like."