'Our friend is a Hamas hostage - I'm so nervous I can't breathe'

Heightened tension in downtown Tel Aviv reached fever pitch on Saturday night as families and friends of hostages to be freed await news of their release.

You could feel the excitement and rising nervousness over the hostages’ condition and whether finally Israel - and of course Gaza - can breath a sigh of relief as hostages come home. Similar scenes of relief and fear that the peace deal may fall down or something could go wrong are being played out in Gaza as prisonersare set to be released. It is believed 20 hostages taken from Israel on October 7 will be set free, released via the Red Cross, to receive emergency medical exams in three hospitals in Israel.

This is a huge operation and many of the loved ones awaiting news are partly in the dark over what is about to happen - they just keep saying “they are coming home”. Almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners too will be freed in the coming hours - thought to be at dawn on Monday morning and the entire region is praying peace prevails.

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Israel has begun transferring "national security prisoners" to the Ofer and Ketziot jails, the prison service says. Thousands of staff "operated throughout the night to implement the government’s decision: 'The framework for the release of all Israeli hostages'", the spokesperson says.

It adds it is "awaiting instructions from the political echelon and the continuation of operational activity to enable the return of the hostages to Israel". In downtown Tel Aviv Loved ones of Israeli soldier Matan Angrest, 22, are in Hostages Square, awaiting news, aware that he was wounded in the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

But they have been told he is coming home, released from captivity and though wounded and suffering burns, he will be a free man after two years in captivity. A friend of the family, lawyer Gal Cohen, 29, from Tel Aviv, is standing next to another family friend Zafy Ackulumbre, 31, who works for the Bring Them Home campaign.

Both are ex-IDF “observers” and started their group which supports hostage families because five comrades, all girls, were kidnapped and then released as observers.

Gal said: “This is a mix of huge excitement and fear. I feel like I cannot breathe. I know Matan and I have been praying for his return, as we all have. We know he is injured, he was burned on October 7, but we do know he is alive. When he is free everyone here will know immediately. We are friends and I know his family. I know his brother and sister and they are awaiting news with great nervous excitement.

“I am terrified in case something happens to the process and I just want him home - we all want that. All Israelis want that as these hostages are our brothers and sisters. The feeling is like not being able to breathe, taking the air in but it goes nowhere. It is so hard to explain the emotions of this time, being here, waiting for news.”

Palpable excitement fell over this iconic square last night as US speakers, perhaps envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to arrive. Rumours buzz the growing crowd constantly.

There are Bring Them Home flags everywhere, pictures of the hostages on T-shirts, posters, anywhere people can display their love and need for their return after so long. Tel Aviv is abuzz with tension over what to expect of the condition of the hostages who are likely to be terribly traumatised and physically damaged through malnutrition and possibly torture.

Medics were on standby awaiting the arrival of 20 Israeli men who have survived two years of physical and psychological torture by their cruel captors. Some have lost up to half their body weight, been blinded or bear the scars of living in chains while cheating death every day. They could be released by 4am Monday UK time.

Donald Trump ’s 20-point peace deal demands all 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead captives must be released by 10am on Monday. He is flying to Israel to seal the deal and is understood to be keen to meet freed captives before addressing the Knesset parliament tomorrow morning.

Pianist Alon Ohel, 24, will come back partially blind after a Hamas bomb exploded in his face as he was grabbed near the Nova Music Festival. Three skeletal men released in February who had been with Alon revealed they had all been kept in chains.

Brothers Gali Berman and Ziv Berman, 28 were taken hostage at Kfar Aza kibbutz - and their family fear brother’s lives will never return to normal. Older brother Liran Berman said: “We had our lives before October 7 and now we don’t know what will happen - even if my brothers are released, it will leave lifelong scars.”

There is kidnapped Nova Festival reveller and guitarist Evyatar David, 24. But his brother Ilay David said medical experts who reviewed images of him in sick Hamas videos had concluded Evyatar had lost nearly half his body weight. Eitan Horn, 38, was taken from Nir Oz with his older brother, Iair Horn, who was released in February.

Iair begged an Israeli parliamentary committee last month to cut a deal to free his brother. David Cunio, 35, was abducted along with his wife, Sharon and their twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, then three. Sharon and the children were released in November 2023 but in a video the traumatised mum pleaded with Hamas to allow the devoted to come home.

Kidnapped Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, is among hostages subjected to psychological torture. Nova festival security guard Rom Braslavski, 21, has appeared in harrowing videos released by Hamas since his kidnap appearing anguished and emaciated. Nova security guard Eitan Mor, 25, was dragged to Gaza as he tried to evacuate casualties during the October 7 massacres.

Tension remained high as distraught relatives of survivors began travelling to reception centres in central and southern Israel on Saturday to prepare to hug their loved ones. Israel Defence Forces soldiers withdrew to an agreed line following their government's acceptance of Trump's peace deal.

Living hostages will first be handed over to the Red Cross then taken to a reception centre to meet relatives and be medically assessed. From there, any freed captive in life-threatening condition will be rushed to one of two intensive care units on standby in hospitals in southern Israel.

And out of danger will be moved to three other hospitals by helicopter, including one close to Hostage Square in central Tel Aviv. Israeli sources say a 6am mass release (4am UK time) was possible early on Monday - without any ceremony.

The bodies of 28 dead Israeli hostages are also due to be returned over the weekend, but Hamas officials have already warned they may have lost track of as many as 15 of them. Once Israel’s captives are free, around 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails will be freed along with 1,700 detainees from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was booed as US envoy Steve Witkoff heaped praise on Israel, celebrating US Donald Trump’s Gaza peace deal.

The bustling crowd cheered Trump and Witkoff, chanting “Thank you Trump.” But at the mention of Netanyahu’s name many booed.

Witkoff told them: “I dreamed of this night. This is the most powerful sight.

“It’s been a long journey. There are 100,000 people here tonight, all our hearts beating as one gathered here in Tel Aviv.

“We stand here tonight, Jews , Christians, Muslims and people from every part of the world, united by one shared prayer.

“This is a moment many thought impossible. Miracles can happen.”

After boos against Netanyahu, he said: ”From the bottom of our hearts, we honour the the families of the hostages. You courage has moved the world and has touched me in ways that I have never been touched before in my entire life.”

He said Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were to speak to the crowd and announced to the hostages: ”You are coming home. Your faces , your names your stories. Your endurance, your faith and your will to live have been symbols of the human spirit.”

The long-awaited pause in fighting triggered an immediate flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza at a rate of 600-a-day and a mass return of thousands of Palestinian to Gaza’s ruined north.

Some 200 American soldiers will help oversee the release of 20 living and 28 dead hostages as close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners get released including 250 life sentence servers. They began arriving yesterday in Israel.

Last night the Gaza ceasefire was holding and the guns were silent - the quiet over the Strip only broken by drones, warplanes and Apache helicopters. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are returning to devastated towns and cities in northern Gaza as the Israeli military ceases fire and partially withdraws from the territory under the first phase of a peace deal with Hamas.

UNRWA has called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened, saying that there are 6,000 aid trucks ready to reach Gaza in hours. The war has killed at least 67,211 people and wounded 169,961 since October 2023. A total of 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 250 were taken captive.