About 100 hostages, living and dead, are thought still to be held in Gaza, most of them taken in the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Thirty-three of them will be released during an initial six-week phase of the cease-fire, including female soldiers and civilians, children, men over 50 and sick and wounded people, according to the agreement.

“The vast majority” of the 33 hostages to be released in the six-week first phase of the cease-fire are alive, an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said Sunday in a discussion on social media.

Video released by the Israeli military showed the three hostages being reunited with their families at Sheba Hospital in Israel.

In one clip, one of the returned hostages, Romi Gonen, is surrounded in an embrace by members of her family as they tearfully comfort one another. Yarden Gonen, her sister, who had traveled around the world in the past year to lobby for Romi’s release, jumps up and down in the video as the family hugs. In another clip, another released hostage, Doron Steinbrecher, tearfully embraces loved ones.

Romi Gonen

Ms. Gonen was 23 when she was captured as she was trying to leave the Nova music festival in southern Israel when Hamas attacked. She was speaking at the time to her mother, Meirav Gonen, who said she had been shot and was bleeding.

Last February, Meirav Gonen released a recording of her last phone call with her daughter. She told the Israeli news media that Romi was a strong and happy person who often went to raves.

In the early weeks of the war, her mother expressed concern that Israeli military operations in Gaza could endanger the hostages.

Romi Gonen’s older sister, Yarden, told The New York Times in February that she regularly went to a plaza in Tel Aviv where families of hostages have held vigils.

“None of us is doing anything remotely related to our previous lives,” she said.

Emily Damari

Ms. Damari, 27 at the time she was captured, is the only hostage with British citizenship who was still being held this month. She was taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza in southern Israel and was seen by a neighbor in her own car, driven by a militant, heading toward Gaza.

Ms. Damari was raised in Israel but traveled to Britain often, according to her mother, British-born Mandy Damari, who was in Israel last month to speak with officials and the news media and to plead for a hostage and cease-fire deal. She said that her daughter had been shot and that she feared for her life, telling the BBC that she had welcomed the threats from President-elect Donald J. Trump that there would be “all hell to pay” if no deal was reached by his inauguration.

Last January, a hostage who had been released from Gaza, Dafna Elyakim, told the Israeli news media that she and her younger sister had been taken into Hamas’s underground tunnels, where they met other female hostages, including Ms. Damari.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Mandy Damari spoke at an event in Hyde Park in London, where she described her daughter as a soccer fan who enjoyed a drink and had “the classic British sense of humor, with a dash of Israeli chutzpah thrown in for good measure.”

On Sunday, Mandy Damari thanked “everyone who never stopped fighting for Emily throughout this horrendous ordeal.” But, she said in a statement, “for too many other families the impossible wait continues.”

The Israeli military also released a picture of Emily Damari and her mother that showed her missing two fingers on her left hand. Ms. Damari was shot in the hand on Oct. 7, 2023.

Doron Steinbrecher

Ms. Steinbrecher, who was 30 when she was captured from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza, is a veterinary nurse with Romanian and Israeli citizenship. According to Israeli news media, she was in touch with her family on the kibbutz when the militants attacked, telling her parents that they had smashed her windows and shot into her room.

“They’ve arrived, they have me,” she said in a subsequent voice message sent to friends.

Last January, Hamas released a video clip of Ms. Steinbrecher and two other captives, Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev, in which they pleaded for their release.

Last March, on her 31st birthday, the Jewish News Syndicate published an interview with her mother, Simona Steinbrecher, who said that she had looked pale and thin in the video. She said she was concerned that Ms. Steinbrecher was not getting the daily medication she needed, though she did not specify what that was.

“She’s a strong woman, but it’s terrible being there,” Simona Steinbrecher said.

On Sunday, the family of Doron Steinbrecher issued a statement celebrating her release that thanked the Israeli people and expressed gratitude to Mr. Trump “for his significant involvement and support, which meant so much to us.” The statement did not mention President Biden or any Israeli leaders.

The Israel Defense Forces, in coordination with the Health Ministry, additional government ministries and security authorities, completed final preparations Saturday to receive the first of the hostages being released by Hamas from the Gaza Strip Sunday. 

The preparations included home-like conditions inside trailers for the hostages to sleep before they head to hospitals to be looked over and all the comforts of home, including baskets of toiletries and fresh clothes. 

Inside the trailers, the hostages will have couches and potted plants for a bit of décor. Outside, they can sit on outdoor patio furniture accented with colorful oversize pillows. 

The receiving locations also have necessary medical provisions. 

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HOSTAGES AND CEASE-FIRE DEAL BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HAMAS SET TO BEGIN SUNDAY

From there, the hostages will be taken to hospitals, where they will be reunited with their families. 

The IDF said it requests “patience and sensitivity” from the public as the hostages return. 

“We ask everyone to respect the privacy of the hostages and their families,” the IDF said. “The public is requested only to refer to official updates and announcements and refrain from sharing unverified information.” 

ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE, HOSTAGE RELEASE DEAL REACHED: ‘AMERICANS WILL BE PART OF THAT’

An IDF soldier makes preparations at a site where hostages are expected to arrive Sunday. (IDF)

The hostages have been held by Hamas for nearly 500 days since Hamas’ unprovoked attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023. 

Three hostages are expected to be released first on Sunday after a cease-fire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas Wednesday. 

IDF personnel make preparations at the various sites and in the hospitals where the hostages will arrive. (IDF)

The first hostages released are expected to be female. 

In all, 33 hostages will be released, including two Americans. More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be returned by the Israelis. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday Israel wouldn’t move forward with the outline of the deal until it receives a list of the hostages to be released. That was agreed upon after the names didn’t arrive from Qatar as expected Saturday. 

“Israel will not tolerate violations of the agreement,” he said. “The sole responsibility is on Hamas.

“In the … war, we make it clear to our enemies — we make it clear to the whole world — that when the people of Israel stand together, there is no force that can break us.

Thirty-three hostages are expected to be released by Hamas.  (IDF)

“To date, we have brought home 157 of our abductees, of which 117 are alive. In the agreement now approved, we will bring home 33 more of our brothers and sisters, most of them alive.” 

He also credited both President Biden and President-elect Trump with helping reach a cease-fire deal. 

“As soon as he was elected, President Trump joined the mission of freeing the hostages,” Netanyahu said. “He talked to me on Wednesday night. He welcomed the agreement, and he rightly emphasized that the first step of the agreement is a temporary cease-fire. That’s what he said, “temporary cease-fire.’”

Netanyahu said Biden and Trump “gave full backing to Israel’s right to return to fighting if Israel comes to the conclusion that negotiations on Phase B are futile.”

Netanyahu also said he appreciated Trump’s decision to “remove all remaining restrictions on the supply of essential weapons and armaments to the State of Israel.”

As Donald Trump is sworn in today at around 12pm EST (6pm CET) as the 47th President of the United States, European politicians will be listening attentively to his second-term inaugural address, while several of the his political allies will attend in person.

Trump’s statements since his election victory on 5 November have raised concerns in Europe over the speed at which a ramp up of contributions from NATO member states will be sought and how quickly and at what cost a peace deal over the Ukraine conflict might come, on top of the pervasive threat of tariff hikes.

Donald Trump also stunned Europeans by announcing that he wanted to buy Greenland, a Danish territory, not ruling out the possibility of using force.

Although heads of state and governments aren’t usually included on the guest-list of the inauguration ceremony of American presidents, Argentina President Javier Milei was invited and will attend alongside Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa. Chinese President Xi Jinping was also invited but will be represented by Vice President Han Zheng.

In Europe, the leaders of the main European institutions have not been invited, but the EU’s representative to the US, Jovita Neliupšienė, will be present, and a large gathering of European right-wing politicians and MEPs is expected in Washington.

Italy’s Prime minister Georgia Meloni, who recently visited Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club, is on the guest-list and confirmed Saturday she was coming. Former Polish Prime Minister and President of the ECR Mateusz Morawiecki, has said he will attend the ceremony, as well as Belgium’s Vlaams Belang leader Tom Van Grieken, Eric Zemmour, the leader of France’s nationalist Reconquête party, Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Santiago Abascal Spain’s Vox party president and Nigel Farage leader of the far-right Reform UK party.

The German Ambassador to Washington, Mr Michaelis, will attend the inauguration on behalf of the federal government, according to the government spokespeople.

Foreign policy spokesperson for CDU Jürgen Hardt is also attending from the German side.

AfD confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Tino Chrupalla will be attending Trump’s inauguration, whilst co-leader and chancellor candidate Alice Weidel will stay behind in Germany to concentrate on the election campaign. Deputy chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group, Beatrix von Storch is also to attend the event. 

In total 13 MEPs from The Patriots, the ECR and Europe of Sovereign Nation, including MEPs from Spanish VOX, Hungarian Fidesz, French Rassemblement National, German AFD, Czech ANO, Italian Fratelli d’Italia, Polish PiS, Dom i nacionalno okupljanje from Croatia and National Alliance from Latvia.

Last week a spokesperson for Viktor Orbán confirmed that the Hungarian prime minister had not been invited.

Silicon Valley moguls will unsurprisingly also attend Trumps’ inauguration, along with former US presidents, US senators and House members, foreign diplomats, such as the EU’s representative to D.C., Jovita Neliupšienė, and heads of state. X owner Elon Musk, who will lead US Department of government efficiency, will be there as well as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and bosses of Alphabet and Apple Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook.

200,000 people are expected to show up in Washington DC for the ceremony.

The inauguration day for the American presidents consists of several formal stages, from a service at St John’s Church, Lafayette Square, a historic Washington DC church, to three inaugural balls throughout the city where the new president is expected to speak.

Musical performance will take place on the main event stage at the US Capitol, before the swearing-in of Donald Trump and vice president-elected J.D Vance as well as the inaugural address of the 47th president of the United-States.