Nine Israeli children and two women return home on Monday after being released by Hamas terrorists

Shortly before 11 p.m. local time, the latest group of 11 hostages reached Israeli territory and were received by Israeli special forces after being released from the hands of the Hamas terrorist who had kidnapped them from Israel 52 days earlier.

Contrary to expectations last night, the 11 released Israeli hostages were taken to the Kerem Shalom border crossing by Red Cross personnel into Israel directly, instead of taking the longer route through Egypt.

As in the previous days, Hamas again published propaganda footage of the handover to the Red Cross, showing masked and armed terrorists loading the hostages into Red Cross vans.

After a longer-than-usual transfer, the 11 Israelis were met at the border and taken for preliminary checkups before being reunited with their families at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

The released hostages, however, were not reunited with all their family members, as some of them were murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7. In addition, the fathers of all five families whose children were released on Monday are still being held hostage by terrorists inside the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli government published the names of the released hostages on Monday evening:

-       Eitan Yahalomi (12 years old)

The Engel family:

-       Karina Engel-Bart (51 years old)

-       Mika Engel (18 years old)

-       Yuval Engel (12 years old)

The Cunio family:

-       Sharon Aloni-Cunio (34 years old)

-       Yuli Cunio (3 years old)

-       Emma Cunio (3 years old)

The Calderon family:

-       Sahar Calderon (16 years old)

-       Erez Calderon (12 years old)

The Yaakov family:

-       Or Yaakov (16 years old)

-       Yagil Yaakov (age 12). Yagil appeared in a propaganda video by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Nov. 9.

Among the 11 Israelis were six Argentinian, three French and two German citizens, Qatari officials stated.

French President Emmanuel Macron praised the release of Eitan Yahalomi and the Calderon children, who are dual Israeli-French citizens.

“Three of our young compatriots are part of the group of hostages released today. Extremely happy with this announcement. We remain fully mobilized to obtain the release of all the hostages,” he wrote on X.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also celebrated the release of the German citizens, writing on X: “After 52 days of suffering and despair, their mother can take them into her arms again. I think of the families who continue to worry. We are doing everything we can to ensure that you too can hug your loved ones again.”

The 11 Israeli hostages who were released on Monday were all citizens of Kibbutz Nir Oz, from which 77 residents were kidnapped and at least 25 were murdered by Hamas terrorists and their accomplices on Oct. 7.