Live Witnesses: Sydney Residents Observe Intense Hostage-Detainee Exchange Unfolding Before Receiving Critical Call

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Mona Kaskeen and her husband Khalil stayed awake all night on Monday, searching for one face in the rolling coverage from Israel and Gaza.

Finally, at 2.30am, a familiar face appeared on the other end of a video call — although one far more gaunt than the last time they’d seen it.

“I didn’t recognize Ibrahim at first. He has lost a significant amount of weight and even his teeth,” remarked Mona, a neurosurgeon who relocated to Sydney from Gaza with her family in March 2024.

This composite image contrasts a well-dressed young man smiling at night in a suit next to a parked car (left) with a screenshot from a video call (right). The video call shows a similar young man with longer hair and a moustache, wearing a grey sweatshirt, with another man partially visible to his side and an older man in a small inset window.

Ibrahim’s family attributes his drastic weight loss to the two years he spent in an Israeli prison.

A dense crowd of people is gathered in a street amidst buildings and a bus, with a young man smiling and holding up a peace sign while being carried on another person's shoulders.

“It was an indescribable joy, thank God,” expressed Khalil, mentioning that Ibrahim’s first question was why Khalil wasn’t there to greet him in Gaza.

According to the United Nations, 78% of the structures in the Gaza Strip have suffered partial or complete destruction due to Israel’s ongoing assaults over the past two years.

A diverse group of people, some seated on the grass and others standing, are gathered outdoors at night, intently focused on something out of frame. A young woman in the centre is wrapped in a large white and blue Israeli flag.

Members of Sydney’s Jewish community attended an official commemoration of the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Sydney on Sunday. This year, 7 October fell on the first day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Source: AAP / Sittixay Ditthavong

The next day, hundreds gathered in Melbourne’s east to watch their release broadcast live.

Justine Pearl, a Jewish community member who attended the gathering, told SBS Hebrew on Tuesday: “I feel like I’ve had a solid night’s sleep for the first time in two years.”

“I feel elated, exhausted, excited, nervous — all of the feelings, it’s a lot,” she said.

Naomi Levin, CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, said the community was greatly relieved.

“We’ve had two years of waiting, two years of praying, two years of having our hearts really on hold, while we’ve been waiting for all the hostages to come home,” she said.

“But maybe after today with the release of the hostages, it’s time for a new era and time for a new era of peace,” Levin said.

A woman in a white turtle neck is looking sideways with a crowd visible behind her.

Jewish Community Council of Victoria CEO Naomi Levin joined hundreds at an event in Melbourne’s east on Monday to follow live coverage of the events in Israel. Source: SBS News

Khalil also hopes the ceasefire marks the beginning of a new chapter.

“God willing, it will be a real beginning for a comprehensive and lasting peace and the beginning of reconstruction and settling people, because we are tired,” he said.

“The Palestinian people have had enough … so I hope that it will be a comprehensive and honest deal, and that it will be carried out in the best possible way, with the support of the sponsoring countries.”

But strains in the partly agreed peace plan are already starting to show.

Hamas has accused Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire after the Israeli military killed five Palestinians as they went to check on houses in a suburb east of Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces after ignoring calls to turn back.

Israel has also accused Hamas of failing to fulfil its promise to return the remains of deceased hostages, threatening to halve the number of humanitarian aid trucks allowed into the famine-stricken enclave in response.

As of Wednesday, Hamas had handed over eight coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 19 presumed dead and one unaccounted for.

Since Israel partially withdrew from Gaza, Hamas has deployed hundreds of security forces in the streets and executed several people they accused of collaborating with Israel.

Israeli officials have so far refrained from commenting publicly on the re-emergence of the group’s fighters.

— With additional reporting by Reuters and the Australian Associated Press