Eitan Horn, Nimrod Cohen leave hospital, return home after 738 days in Hamas captivity
(JNS) — Freed Hamas hostages Eitan Horn and Nimrod Cohen were discharged on Thursday from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Ichilov Hospital, three days after returning to Israel under the truce deal that secured their release after more than 700 days in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Sourasky Medical Center said the ex-captives completed all the required medical evaluations before their release and that medical teams would continue to accompany them and their families during their recovery.
Horn, 38, was released to his family’s home in the central city of Kfar Saba, where hundreds of ecstatic residents lined the streets, waving Israeli flags, clapping and singing the national anthem, per Ynet.
“After 738 difficult and long days in Hamas captivity, Eitan is finally coming home,” the Horn family said in a statement. “We’re waiting for him with hugs and endless love and will support him throughout his rehabilitation. Our heart is not whole, and our struggle is not over.
“Eitan has returned, but that’s not enough. Only when the last hostage is home can we say we’ve fulfilled our mission and our moral duty,” they added.
In Rehovot, just south of Tel Aviv, residents welcomed back Cohen, 21, who was released from Hamas captivity alongside Horn on Monday.
As the Hamas survivor made his way home, Rehovot residents lined up along the streets waving Israeli flags, and a convoy of emergency and security vehicles escorted him through the city, according to Ynet.
“Thank you to everyone who came,” Cohen said in remarks to Hebrew media after he came home. “I’m happy to see everyone. I love you all.”
2 more deceased hostages, including only woman, returned to Israel as Hamas says it has freed all it can
(JTA) — Hamas returned the bodies of two more hostages late Wednesday and said it had released all of the remains it is able to access, leaving 19 people unaccounted for.
The two hostages returned Wednesday, DNA analysis showed, were Muhammad Al-Atarash and Inbar Hayman.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced in December 2023 that Hayman, 27, had been killed in Gaza after being abducted from the Nova festival. And the Israeli army announced in July 2024 that Al-Atarash, 39, a Bedouin father of 13, had been killed in combat while responding to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Their return leaves 19 hostages unaccounted for and deepening tensions over their return. The ceasefire deal struck last week required Hamas to release all hostages, living and dead, within 72 hours. It met the deadline for the 20 living hostages, who were freed on Monday, but has not for the deceased ones.
Israel reportedly believes that Hamas knows where additional hostages’ remains are located, following reports from freed hostages that they were sometimes held alongside bodies. President Donald Trump, who brokered the deal between Israel and Hamas, said on Wednesday that he believed further efforts were being made to locate the hostages, who were killed on and after Oct. 7.
“It’s a gruesome process,” he said. “But they’re digging. They’re actually digging. There are areas where they’re digging, and they’re finding a lot of bodies. Then they have to separate the bodies. You wouldn’t believe this. And some of those bodies have been in there a long time, and some of them are under rubble. They have to remove rubble.”
Israeli indicted for sharing missile strike sites with Iranian agent
(JNS) — Israeli prosecutors on Thursday filed an indictment against Ahmad Shehab, accusing him of contacting a foreign agent and providing information to the enemy during the June conflict with Iran, according to a report by Israel National News.
According to the indictment, the 32-year-old resident of the northern Arab Muslim-majority coastal town of Jisr az-Zarqa communicated via the Telegram app with a person posing as a German journalist who was, in fact, an Iranian agent. During their exchanges, Shehab allegedly supplied information about the locations and impact of Iranian missile strikes in Israel, which he collected from local news outlets.
Haifa District prosecutors said the defendant knew the individual worked on behalf of Iran but continued the contact in exchange for money.
Authorities said Shehab transferred about 40 pieces of information and met the agent several times, including once in central Haifa, where he received an envelope containing roughly 3,000 shekels ($900) in cash after requesting payment in person rather than online.
Prosecutors charged him with contact with a foreign agent and providing information to the enemy, offenses they said could jeopardize Israel’s national security.
Trump pushing to pilot Gaza reconstruction in Rafah
(JNS) — The Trump administration is pushing ahead with the second phase of its Gaza peace plan, aiming to rebuild the southern city of Rafah, Israeli media reported on Thursday, citing senior U.S. officials.
According to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, the aim is to create a “day-after” model for life in the Gaza Strip.
Despite incomplete progress in returning Israeli hostages — only nine of the 28 bodies held by Hamas have been recovered — advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly said that the United States plans to begin reconstruction work and deploy non-Hamas Palestinian security forces in Rafah, which remains under Israeli control.
“The first phase of the deal has been successfully implemented and we are now entering the second phase,” said a senior Trump adviser.
The advisers told Ravid that in the immediate term the focus is on preventing clashes between Hamas and Israeli forces along the “yellow line” of the partial IDF withdrawal in Gaza, as well as on organizing humanitarian aid and continuing to locate the remains of slain Israeli hostages. The Americans are also working on stopping Hamas from committing extrajudicial killings of local clans opposed to the Islamist group, including conveying through intermediaries that the executions of Palestinian civilians must end.
