Hundreds gather at Hostages Square as they await hostages’ release from Gaza

Hundreds of people are gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in the early hours of the morning in anticipation of the release of the 48 hostages from Gaza later in the day.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum had encouraged the public to gather at the square overnight, billing it as a “yellow night” — a play on the phrase “white night,” the Hebrew term for all-nighter.

The forum plans to broadcast the hostages’ return to Israel on large screens set up in the square.

One attendee at the square tells Channel 12 that he arrived at 2 a.m., having made the trip down from northern Israel to mark the occasion.

Meanwhile, the families of the hostages have made their way down south overnight, Channel 12 reports, to make it to the Re’im military facility on the Gaza border by 7:30 a.m.

Hamas is expected to begin releasing the hostages at around 8 a.m.