Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 13, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 13, 2025
Hostages Square crowd cheers Trump, hostages’ reunification with parents
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People celebrate as they watch a live broadcast of the release of Israeli hostages after more than two years of Hamas captivity, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, October 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
The crowd at Hostages Square cheers as US President Donald Trump alights Air Force One at Ben Gurion Airport, and again when the emcee here relays a Shin Bet and IDF statement saying the seven returning hostages were meeting their parents in Israel.
Minutes earlier, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared via newscast on the big screen at Hostages Square in anticipation for Trump, an emcee preemptively shut down any jeering.
“We’re decent, we’re thinking hostages, not right, not left — straight,” she says.
On Saturday night, Netanyahu’s allies excoriated the crowd at the square that booed when White House special envoy Steve Witkoff said the premier’s name while speaking here.
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