It was the kind of moment that stops the world cold — not because of what was said, but because of what didn’t need to be. Tearful embraces. Trembling hands. Freed Israeli hostages running into the arms of loved ones they weren’t sure they’d ever see again.
On Monday, the last 20 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas were released, ending a two-year nightmare that began on October 7, 2023 — the day that changed everything. The day Hamas terrorists unleashed one of the most barbaric attacks in modern history.
But this wasn’t just another ceasefire photo op. This was the culmination of a peace deal advanced by President Donald Trump — the same deal that Washington insiders, the U.N., and the international press insisted would “never happen.” And yet here we are. Hamas blinked.
The images coming out of Israel were both heart-wrenching and healing.
One clip went viral within hours — Avinatan Or, 32, collapsing into the arms of his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, 28, for the first time since that bloody October morning. Noa, who was rescued last year in a daring Israeli operation, could barely stop smiling as Or kissed her cheek in disbelief. The world had seen her before — screaming for help as terrorists on motorcycles dragged her toward Gaza. Now the world saw her free, whole, and holding the man she thought was gone forever.
“October 7 was the last time I saw my partner,” she wrote in a statement. “In captivity, I asked about Avinatan everywhere I went. I didn’t know if he was kidnapped or murdered, but I was afraid to know the answer.”
Another hostage, 24-year-old Evyatar David, came home to his parents after nearly two years of torture, starvation, and forced labor. He was once made to dig his own grave. When he finally stepped off the transport, he clutched his head in disbelief before breaking down into his mother’s arms. The video — pure shock and joy in a single frame — ripped through social media like wildfire.
EMOTIONAL REUNION: Freed Israeli hostage Matan Angrest, 22, embraces family after two years in Hamas captivity. pic.twitter.com/fwh0R4uLkD
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 13, 2025
What these hostages endured defies comprehension. Hamas guards starved, beat, and humiliated them. Some were kept underground for months, locked in airless chambers barely large enough to stand in. Former captive Tal Shoham told Reuters his cell had “concrete walls, a sandy floor, and an iron door,” and that he could hardly breathe.
“We were treated like animals,” he said. “Even animals wouldn’t be kept in such inhumane conditions.”
But this isn’t just a story about survival — it’s a story about accountability. For two years, much of the international press portrayed this war as a tragic stalemate, an endless tit-for-tat. What they left out was the sheer barbarity of Hamas’ tactics — civilians burned alive, women raped, children executed, entire families wiped out. Footage from that day showed terrorists using garden tools to behead the living.
And through it all, Israel fought to bring its people home.
Now, thanks to a peace deal driven not by the State Department bureaucracy but by Trump himself, Hamas has been forced to release its final hostages. The terror group’s acceptance of Trump’s 20-point plan shocked nearly everyone — except, perhaps, Trump. He arrived in Israel on Monday, addressing the Knesset before heading to Egypt to push forward the next phase of the agreement. Israel’s cabinet signed off last Thursday.
No one’s pretending the war is over. Hamas still holds at least 28 bodies of hostages who didn’t survive captivity. Entire neighborhoods in Gaza are rubble. Families on both sides are grieving. But for the first time in two years, there is something close to hope.
And as the freed Israelis walked off those planes — thinner, weaker, but standing — the cheers drowned out the politics.
It was an emotional reunion as the final living hostages were returned to Israel and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were released under a U.S.-brokered cease-fire. @IanPannell reports from Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/yRcjwLTTbc
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 14, 2025
For a brief moment, the world didn’t see negotiations, or strategy, or leverage. It saw something far simpler, far stronger.
A nation that refuses to forget its people.
And a president who — love him or hate him — managed to bring some of them home.
