“I truly, truly hope it won’t end with just the 33 hostages returning home, but that everyone will return.”
The Qatari PM said the deal agreed by Israel and Hamas involves a first stage in which 33 hostages will be released, beginning with women and children, in exchange for a thousand Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
A second stage, requiring further negotiation, is expected to follow.
Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack, of whom 94 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
“The pain is very great, I can’t imagine what the families (of the hostages) are going through,” said Tamar, a 38-year-old from Jerusalem.
“We need to do everything to get them home”.
© 2025 AFP