U.S. officials -- including Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner -- traveled to Israel this week for high-level meetings, discussing the next steps in the delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal by withholding the bodies of the remaining 13 deceased hostages thought to have died during or after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has said the return of the remaining bodies "may take some time" due to the destruction.
2 more coffins of deceased hostages with Red Cross, on the way to IDF in Gaza
The Red Cross is now in possession of two more coffins of deceased hostages, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Security Agency said.
A total of four bodies of deceased hostages are now on their way to IDF forces.
According to the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, all 20 living hostages and the bodies of all 28 deceased hostages still being held in Gaza were supposed to be returned to Israel on Monday.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the return of only four bodies is a “failure to meet commitments” of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, and he said “any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a blatant violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.”
Oct 13, 2025, 12:55 PM EDT
Trump signs peace agreement
President Donald Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani formally signed the Gaza ceasefire agreement at a ceremony in Egypt on Monday as other world leaders looked on.
President Donald Trump signs the agreement at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Suzanne Plunkett/Pool via Getty Images
President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
“This took 3,000 years to get to this point. Can you believe it? And it's going to hold up too. It's going to hold up,” Trump said.
Before signing the agreement, Trump praised “the richest in the world” gathered around him, saying they “really care for their countries” and credited them for joining forces “to get Gaza straightened out.”
“Why this happened is they all came together and they wanted to get Gaza straightened out. They wanted to get the whole thing straightened out,” Trump said. “It got to a point where it was just crazy. And once they got together and once we started talking, it went really, to me, it went smoothly. It went so smoothly. It was such a big help. But it went so smoothly that nobody could even believe it that we're sitting here and getting this all certified out and all done, and everybody’s happy about it.”
President Donald Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pose for a photo, at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.
Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
World leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pose for a family photo, at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.
Yoan Valat/EPA/Shutterstock
-ABC News' Fritz Farrow
Oct 13, 2025, 12:17 PM EDT
5 hostages at Beilinson Hospital meeting mental health professionals, dietitian, physiotherapist
Five of the 20 living hostages who returned to Israel on Monday are being treated at Beilinson Hospital, part of Rabin Medical Center in Israel.
The five hostages -- Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Alon Ohel, Eitan Mor and Avinatan Or -- are undergoing “comprehensive medical evaluations,” hospital director Dr. Lena Koren said in a statement.
Freed Israeli hostage Avinatan Or gestures from a van as he arrives at Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, after he was released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Stripl, Oct. 13, 2025.
Ariel Schalit/AP
Freed Israeli hostage Avinatan Or gestures from a van as he arrives at Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, after he was released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Stripl, Oct. 13, 2025.
Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
“For each of them, we have assembled a dedicated and personalized medical team, including a physician, mental health professionals, a physiotherapist, and a dietitian," Koren said.
-ABC News Jordana Miller
Oct 13, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Released hostage Avinatan Or reunites with ex-hostage girlfriend
Avinatan Or, one of the last 20 living hostages released from Gaza on Monday, has reunited with his girlfriend, former hostage Noa Argamani. Or was seen kissing a beaming Argamani on her cheek in a newly released photo.
Or and Argamani were both kidnapped at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and were immediately separated. Argamani was rescued from Gaza last year.
Hostage Avinatan Or reunites with his girlfriend Noa Argamani after being released from Gaza, in Israel, Oct. 13, 2025.
