All 20 living hostages held by Hamas and 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel were released Monday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that President Donald Trump and other world leaders signed soon after, during a summit in Egypt.
Trump revealed his 20-point Gaza peace plan on Sept. 29 alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Oct. 3, Hamas agreed to release all hostages, including the bodies of Bipin Joshi, Yossi Sharabi, Guy Ilouz and Daniel Peretz, who were killed in captivity, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Dave Cohn, the executive producer of the USC Hillel Jewish Center, is feeling relieved that the hostages are coming home.
“My head is just feeling an immense amount of relief and gratitude and appreciation that the hostages are coming home, [and] that their families have been waiting for this. Israel has been waiting for this,” said Cohn.
“It’s a positive sign, I think, that so many interested parties have aligned behind a commitment to a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians. I think that’s what the summit in Egypt has the potential to represent, not only through American involvement, but through involvement of other regional partners,” said Cohn.
The summit took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday, with world leaders and regional partners from Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates also in attendance, according to ABC News.
Of the 2,000 Palestinians, over 1,700 of the detainees were held without charge, and about 250 were prisoners, according to CNN. Aliya Yousufi, the senior policy and advocacy manager at the Council of American and Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Los Angeles, believes that the agreement will be the first step in rebuilding communities that have been deeply impacted by the war.
“No one can predict the future, but we’re hopeful that it is a meaningful step towards peace. There can be no more steps on top of this. There has to be a cessation of violence before we can move towards any other meaningful efforts to rebuild and have thriving communities on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides,” said Yousufi.
USC student and cabinet co-chair at Hillel, Ariela Moel, a legal studies student, also views the deal as historic progress in the region.
“We are seeing this finally, since 2014, there have been captives in Gaza, and this is the first day where there hasn’t been any Israeli captives since 2014, so that’s that’s huge. I think that that’s something to celebrate, regardless of where you stand,” said Moel.
Annenberg Media reached out to South Central for Justice in Palestine, Trojans for Israel, USC Divest from Death, South Central Against Labor Exploitation and USC faculty for Justice in Palestine.
One of the provisions of the ceasefire deal includes the return of all hostages, whether they are alive or dead.
In an Interview with the New York Times, Gaza citizen Amani Nasir was among the few people in the crowd who watched Red Cross vehicles escort the freed Israeli hostages.
“We were happy for our prisoners — and for the Israelis, too,” she said. “We love peace and the truce. Just as Israelis worry about their hostages, we worry about our prisoners.