RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — For more than 470 days, Eitan Gonen publicly pleaded with his daughter to stay alive while in Hamas captivity. He didn’t know if she would hear him, but he ended every interview he gave with the same hopeful message: Romi is coming home alive.

Hamas released 8 hostages, including Thai workers and Israeli citizens. Notable releases include Agam Berger, a young soldier, and Gadi Moses, an agronomist.

Attendees at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv pose with pictures of the three women released by Hamas on Jan. 19, 2024. (Deborah Danan) Britons Sam Reubens and Heski Strassman, both from Manchester, made aliyah after Oct. 7, in response to growing antisemitism ...

Delta now plans to resume flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport starting April 1. Israeli-owned El Al has been the only airline offering nonstop service from Tel Aviv to North America, which has driven up fares more than 100%, the Times of Israel reported.

TEL AVIV — On lampposts, in shop windows and on smartphone screens across Israel, the posters show a smiling, red-headed baby boy clutching a pink elephant. And now the country is bracing to learn Kfir Bibas’ fate.

Families of the captives and their supporters crowded the centers to watch and cheer as Emily Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 23, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, left Gaza after more than 15 months in

Emotional crowds gather to watch as first three hostages are released in deal, but worry over fate of those still held in Gaza clouds joy

In the ceasefire’s first phase, Israel and Hamas have agreed that 33 Israeli hostages in Gaza will be released in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas-led militants freed the first of eight hostages on Thursday in the latest release since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took hold earlier this month. Israel was expected to release another 110 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel said on Wednesday that 11 more hostages held in Gaza, including five Thais, would be freed over two days this week as part of a fragile Gaza ceasefire.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had received a list from Hamas of eight hostages to be freed on Thursday,

Yellow ribbons of solidarity with Israel's Gaza hostages featured alongside colourful performances at Tel Aviv's drag festival that opened this week, days after a ceasefire brought hope of the captives' return.