https://www.ynetnews.com/article/symvm4t6le
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/2025-10-11/live-updates-870065
This is how the return of the living hostages will take place
October 12, 2025 07:21
“This is a day of tension, anticipation, hope, great pain and joy”:
The Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch, and his team have completed preparations to receive the 20 living hostages who will be released from Hamas captivity — 737 days after the October 7 massacre.
This is how the dramatic hours are expected to unfold, during which the first phase of the agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war will be completed:
“We already completed on Friday night our preparations and the IDF’s preparations on the ‘yellow line’ (the first withdrawal line from the Gaza Strip ).
We are at full readiness,” Hirsch said. For now, the release of the living hostages is supposed to begin on Monday morning, but Israel is prepared for the possibility that the move could be brought forward.
“A number of preparatory actions were carried out by our forces in various aspects both vis-à-vis the Red Cross and more broadly by the IDF in case a move forward is required or for additional actions,” Hirsch said.
The Prime Minister’s Office updated that the hostages’ release will indeed begin at 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
The Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Persons added: “We are to be informed that the Red Cross convoy, composed of a number of vehicles, will reinforce its capabilities.
This is a convoy that will number between eight and 10 vehicles, including jeeps, a minibus and also an ambulance if needed. I am in continuous contact with the head of the Red Cross delegation; they received all the means they requested from us.”
Collecting the hostages
According to the plan, the Red Cross convoy will pick up the hostages at a location coordinated with Hamas. The convoy will then link up with IDF forces, and from there the hostages will be taken to the Re’im camp in the Negev.
“What is clear is that there will be one release wave of all 20 hostages,” Hirsch said. “We have teams that will carry out the initial contact. These are specialists in the psychological field and in providing a sense of security.”
At the Re’im camp the hostages’ family members and relatives will be waiting. Each hostage will be received into a separate room, initially for basic first arrangements.
The hostages will each undergo an initial medical check to assess their condition and determine whether urgent immediate action is required, and then they will meet their relatives.
“The Re’im compound underwent a process of re-preparation, a significant enlargement, because this is a release of all the living hostages at once, and not as before in smaller groups,” Hirsch said.
“We prepared to receive all the families, and each of them will be given the necessary conditions and the privacy required with their loved one.”
Subsequently, freed captives will be flown by Air Force helicopters to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer (which will receive 10 of them), Ichilov in Tel Aviv (which will receive five) and Beilinson in Petah Tikva (which will also receive five).
“The plan is to provide each of them with a ‘safe room’ — a completely closed area for the family alone and for the medical team with the hostage,” Hirsch said.
“There will be an orderly process of medical checks, assessment of their condition and entry into a rehabilitation program with all the experts.”
Hirsch added: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally came on Friday to receive a briefing and review, and to check the preparedness of the health system and the directorate and of the IDF to receive the living hostages in the hospitals.
He gave several instructions on the matter, and we are prepared for this process.” Israeli teams also prepared for possible evacuation to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva and Barzilai in Ashkelon, in case an urgent transfer of hostages is needed.
Hirsch further noted:
“The Hostages and Missing Persons Directorate has completed its preparations for reception at the hospitals as well, and is assisting the families together with the IDF in the required arrangements in terms of transporting the families, placing them in the right location and all the conditions they need.
From the moment they are here, we will support the hostages and the families. They will receive the package that was approved in the Knesset in orderly legislation with disability percentages, payments and everything that the state supports them with extensively.”
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