Trump lands in Israel as hostage release begins
Israeli hostage in Gaza David Cuneo, whose kidnapping was highlighted by Tom Shoval’s 2025 documentary Letter to DavidHe was among 20 people scheduled to be released alive along with his brother Ariel on Monday as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The brothers were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were kidnapped.
They were on a list published by Hamas in the early hours of Monday, which includes 20 Israeli hostages who will be released after two years of captivity in Gaza, under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump and his team.
The Gaza ceasefire agreement, heralded as a historic moment, will include the release of 20 Israeli hostages from Gaza and approximately 2,000 Palestinians from Israeli prisons. The bodies of 28 other Israeli hostages who died in captivity are also scheduled to be returned.
The hope is that the deal will put an end to the two-year conflict between Hamas and Israel, which has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and devastated Gaza.
Beyond Israel and Gaza, the events of the past two years have had a profoundly polarizing effect on societies around the world at every level, with protests spilling into the streets, the entertainment world and the media feeling the gravity of these events, amid shootings and boycotts by sympathetic parties on both sides of the conflict.
On Monday morning, international media focused on the phased release of the hostages, with the first batch of seven people being handed over to the Red Cross in the early hours of the morning.
The defendants are: Omri Miran, Matan Angrist, Ziv Berman, Gali Berman, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Alon Ohel, and Eitan Mor.
News footage showed Red Cross vehicles driving through the rubble of Gaza on their way to an Israeli military base in southern Israel. They reportedly crossed the border into Israel at around 9.40am local time (Sunday, 11.40pm PT).
Shortly after, Air Force One was photographed landing at Ben Gurion Airport, where Trump was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, and advisor Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump.
Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech before the Israeli parliament and then head to Egypt to attend an international summit with the leaders of more than 20 countries to discuss the next steps in the Gaza peace plan and the reconstruction of the devastated Strip.
In Tel Aviv, large crowds gathered in Hostage Square – the site of protests demanding the return of hostages over the past two years – to celebrate and watch large screens showing the progress of those released.
David Cuneo and his brother were among 76 people kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, four miles (7 kilometers) from the Gaza border, which was previously home to about 400 people, while 47 others were killed.
On the same day, David’s wife Sharon and their three-year-old twin daughters Yoli and Emma were also kidnapped, as well as Ariel’s partner, Jews. Sharon, Yoli and Emma were released in November 2023, while Jews were released earlier this year.
Cheval captured the plight of David Cuneo and his family as they agonized over the return of the brothers in his very personal film Letter to Davidproduced by Nancy Spielberg, had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
The director first became friends with David Cuneo and his twin brother Etan when they starred in his first film youths Which was shown for the first time in the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2013.
In a bizarre antics, the Kounios played brothers who kidnap a young woman using a military-issued rifle in an ill-advised scheme to raise money to pay off family debts.
Eitan Cuneo, who also lived in Nir Oz, escaped on October 7 after hiding in a safe room in his home. He gives a horrific account of Letter to David How he thought he would be burned alive after the attackers started setting fire to the buildings.
Mixing extracts from youths; Footage from the film’s development and shooting, and interviews with family members, add flesh and blood to the cinematic message of the man staring at the Bring Him Home posters.
The film won Best Documentary at Israel’s Ophir Awards in September. Cheval said at the time: “This is an unfinished film, and it will remain open until David returns.”
Other hostages scheduled to be released on Monday include Bar Avraham Kupperstein, Eviatar David, Yosef Haim Ohana, Segev Kalvon, Avinatan Or, Elkana Bohbot, Maxim Herkin, Nimrod Cohen, Matan Angrist, Matan Zangawker, Eitan Horn, and Rom Braslavsky.