Israel and Hamas have agreed to a two-day extension of their four-day cease-fire to allow for Hamas to release more hostages and Israel to release more prisoners.

So far, Hamas has returned 58 hostages during the current truce, including 39 Israelis. Before the truce, four hostages were freed, another was rescued and two were found dead inside Gaza.


What You Need To Know

  • Dozens of Israeli hostages have been released since last week
  • An extended pause in the fighting between Hamas and Israel could mean more hostages being released this week
  • Protests continue in Israel calling for all hostages to be returned home

Some families have started reuniting with loved ones who had been kidnapped for close to two months.

A video released shows 9-year-old Ohad Munder running into his dad's arms for the first time since being released by Hamas.

Along with his mom and grandmother, Munder was taken from a kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

Eyal Nouri pointed his phone at the camera on his computer during a Zoom interview with NY1. It showed the moment his aunt Adina was being released by Hamas.

“Just before she leaves the car, she slaps his hand,” Nouri said.

She slapped the hand of a Hamas militant, Nouri told NY1, in the last moments she was held against her will.

“She is brave and — seven weeks in the captivity — Hamas didn’t break her spirit,” Nouri said.

Nouri said his aunt spent the time underground in the darkness of Hamas' tunnels in Gaza, without any idea of what was happening in the world around her.

In fact, he said she wasn't even sure when she was being released until she saw the Red Cross.

"When she was released, she didn't know. Nobody knew if they were going to be released or if they were going to be executed," Nouri said.

Other Israelis were taken via helicopter into area hospitals after getting back into the country.

Families reunited with 4-year-old American and Israeli citizen Abigail Edan, whose parents were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. The family of 9-year-old Emily Hand also met at the hospital.

"She's lost a lot of weight from her face and body, but generally doing better than we expected," said Tom Hand, Emily's dad.

Gradually, some of the new hospital patients have been discharged, like Margalit Moses, who was greeted by the staff cheering her on as she walked out.

"Everyone, I need to tell you how amazing you are, really, everything you have done," Moses said to them in Hebrew.

But the work is not done. There is the trauma.

Nouri's aunt watched her husband slowly die on Oct. 7 in her arms, and he was buried while she was in captivity.

"She's going to get a lot of the information this week, slowly with a lot of psychological help," Nouri said.

He added that many of her friends from the kibbutz were either killed or are still being held hostage. 

Nouri said the work will also continue to bring home the nearly 200 people still held by Hamas. He continues to go to Tel Aviv to protest in solidarity with the other families still waiting and hoping their loved ones will be freed soon.

"We are not going to stop until everybody is back home," Nouri said.