A man places a heart-shaped sticker on a banner with photographs of Israeli hostages during a gathering in a square known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday.
Oded Balilti/AP
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Oded Balilti/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel — A fragile ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas held on Tuesday even as difficult challenges remained ahead, a day after widespread jubilation over the return to Israel of the last 20 living hostages held in the Gaza Strip and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in return.
The most pressing issues include when Hamas will return to Israel the bodies of the 24 hostages believed to have died in the Gaza Strip, as well as the health status of the freed hostages and freed Palestinians.
Only four of the dead hostages, whose release is also part of the first phase of a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump, were handed over to Israeli authorities on Monday. On Tuesday, the Israeli military identified two of them as Guy Illouz from Israel and Bipin Joshi, a student from Nepal.
People gather to greet released Palestinian prisoners arriving in the Gaza Strip following their release from Israeli prisons under a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.
Abdel Karim Hana/AP
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Abdel Karim Hana/AP
Both men were in their 20s when Hamas-led militants picked them up in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war: Illouz from the Nova music festival and Joshi from a bomb shelter.
Israel said Illouz died of his wounds while in captivity without proper medical treatment, while Joshi was killed in captivity in the early months of the war, adding that the National Center for Forensic Medicine would later release a final cause of death.
The freed Israeli hostages were receiving medical treatment Tuesday, and some families said it would be weeks before the men could return home. In the West Bank and Gaza, where hundreds of prisoners were released, several people were also taken to hospitals.
Separately, the Israeli military said troops in the northern Gaza Strip “opened fire to eliminate the threat” that several people approached them across the Yellow Line on Tuesday and disobeyed orders to stop. The department did not comment on those injured in the incident.
Part of the ceasefire agreement is that Israel will retreat in Gaza to the so-called Yellow Line, where its troops were stationed in August before launching its latest offensive on Gaza City in the north of the strip.
Long-term questions also hang in the balance, including whether Hamas will disarm, who will govern and help rebuild the Gaza Strip, and the overarching issue of Palestinian statehood, which is central to the Palestinians and many countries in the region.
“The first steps toward peace are always the hardest,” Trump said, speaking alongside foreign leaders in Egypt on Monday for a summit on the future of Gaza. He hailed the ceasefire he negotiated between Israel and Hamas as the end of the war in Gaza and the beginning of reconstruction of the devastated territory.
The U.N. development agency said Tuesday that the latest joint estimate from the U.N., European Union and World Bank estimates that $70 billion will be needed to rebuild Gaza. Jaco Sillers, the UNDP administrator's special representative for Palestinian assistance, said $20 billion would be needed over the next three years and the rest would be needed over a longer period – perhaps decades.
In Egypt, Trump called on regional leaders to “put aside old divisions” as world leaders met to discuss the challenges ahead in securing a lasting peace. There were no representatives from Israel or Hamas at the summit.
