‘I’m shaking all over’: hugs, tears and relief in Israel as Gaza hostages return

<p>On a powerfully emotional day, 20 Israelis went home, hundreds of Palestinians were freed from prison and Trump had his perfectly scripted moment</p><p>The estimated 65,000 people in “hostages square” in Tel Aviv heard it before they saw it. Like so many sunflowers, their faces turned up to search the clear blue morning sky for the source of the sound. Then it swept into view from the west, from the direction of Gaza.</p><p>A helicopter, military brown, was on the way to Ichilov hospital a few hundred metres away. But it diverted. It circled around the crowd giving each person below a view, and then tilted to its right, in an apparent salute to the cheering, waving, smiling faces below.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/13/trump-did-everything-jubilant-israelis-heap-praise-on-us-president-as-hostages-return">Continue reading...</a>