Israel-Gaza updates: 17 more hostages released, including 4-year-old American girl, officials say
Fourteen Israeli and three foreign hostages were released Sunday, the IDF said.
Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Click here for updates from previous days.
Latest headlines:
What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
Israel releases info on freed Palestinian prisoners
Thirty-nine Palestinian prisoners were released Friday evening in accordance with the deal between Hamas and Israel to free hostages in Gaza.
"Tonight we finished the first day of our mission to bring the abductees home," Rabbi Gondar Cathy Perry, commissioner of prisons, said in a statement. "We will continue in the coming days to act as much as is required of us in order to support the national effort."
Those who were released included female security prisoners and minor security prisoners, according to the Israel Prison Service.
They were released from three prisons: Damon, Megiddo and Ofer. Perry visited the prisons to oversee the operations, according to the Israel Prison Service.
-ABC News' Will Gretsky
IDF releases video of moment hostages reached Israeli territory
The Israel Defense Forces has released a video of the exact moment vehicles returned the group of hostages freed Friday back to Israeli territory.
The group of Israeli hostages, held for 47 days in Gaza, crossed into Egypt from Gaza via the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing. They will be transported to hospitals in Israel, sources told ABC News.
Names released of the freed Israeli hostages
The Israeli government released the names of the Israeli hostages released on Friday by Hamas.
All of the hostages released Friday were abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz, according to a spokesperson.
The freed hostages, according to the Israeli Office of the Prime Minister, are:
The government together with all the security forces will accompany them and their families.
Netanyahu confirms return of first group of hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in a statement that the transfer to Isreal of the first group of hostages has been completed.
"We have now completed the return of the first of our abductees. Children, their mothers and other women. Each and every one of them is a whole world," Netanyahu said in his statement.
Netanyahu emphasized to the families of the hostages and to all Israeli citizens, "We are committed to the return of all our abductees."
"This is one of the goals of the war and we are committed to achieving all the goals of the war," Netanyahu said.
-ABC News' Matt Gutman
Biden says release of hostages 'just the beginning'
President Joe Biden said Friday that the release of 24 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza is "just the beginning" of a plan to free 50 of the more than 230 captives over four days.
“It's only a start, but so far it's gone well,” Biden said in a televised address from Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he and first lady Jill Biden are vacationing.
He said Friday's hostage release is part of a deal "reached by extensive U.S. diplomacy, including numerous calls I've made from the Oval Office to leaders across the region," including calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the emir of Qatar.
“All of these hostages have been through a terrible ordeal, and this is the beginning of a long journey of healing for them,” Biden said. “Today has been a product of a lot of hard work and weeks of personal engagement.”
Biden said that under the deal, more hostages would be released over the next three days with 50 being "our goal." But he added, "We also will not stop until we get these hostages brought home and an answer to their whereabouts.”
The president said U.S. officials do not know when Americans -- including two women and 4-year-old Abigail Edan, whose parents were killed by Hamas terrorists -- will be among those that are released or their conditions. He added, “We expect it to occur” and that it’s his “hope and expectation” that it “will be soon.”
Biden said the four-day cease-fire that was negotiated for the release of the hostages will allow time to "accelerate and expand humanitarian assistance going into Gaza."
Speaking of the children freed on Friday, one just 2 years old, Biden said, “The teddy bears waiting to greet those children at the hospital are a stark reminder of the trauma these children have been through at such a very young age.”
-ABC News' Justin Gomez