Having been handed off to the Red Cross, the hostages Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari are set to be in Israeli hands within a half an hour today (Sunday).
This event comes following a tense hour and a half in which conflicting reports spoke of and then denied that the hostages had been handed off to the Red Cross to be delivered to Israel.
While the hostages were supposed to be delivered at 4 PM, Hamas delayed the handover until now, taking the time to deploy as many of its armed men throughout the Gaza Strip as a show of strength and to ensure order as the hostages were being released.
Once received by the IDF, they will then be transported to an absorption center near Kibbutz Re'im, a distance away from the site of the Nova festival massacre, where they will meet their families. After this, they will be transported to Israeli hospitals on their way to physical and psychological recovery.
Soroka Hospital announced today that they had highly trained specialists from multiple fields ready to care for the hostages' needs in every respect, based on their experience treating hostages from the previous deal in November 2023.
Defense Minister Katz visited the absorption point at Re'im today, where he praised the efforts of the IDF teams as well as the army's redeployment and defensive efforts to prevent any sudden attacks or kidnapping efforts by Hamas during the ceasefire period.
Katz said that Israel will not end the war until all the hostages are home, and that the IDF would respond powerfully to any violation of the ceasefire or any threat posed by Hamas.
Hamas' spokesperson has announced that he will release a recorded statement at 6 PM Israel time. The IDF Spokesperson will make a statement at the same time.
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