Palestinian Resistance Allows Israeli Captives in Gaza to Contact Families Ahead of Release

Gaza (QNN)- The Palestinian resistance allowed the remaining Israeli captives still held in Gaza to contact their families just hours before their scheduled release under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement on Monday.

According to pictures circulated in Israeli media, the captives talked to their families over the phone shortly upon their release by the Palestinian resistance on Monday morning.

The Times of Israel and YNet News confirmed that Hamas has let some of the Israeli captives who are yet to be freed in Gaza contact their families ahead of their release.

Among them was Matan Zangauker, who telephoned his mother, Einav.

“You’re coming home — you’re all coming home,” she told her son, according to the Times of Israel. “There’s no more war.”

YNet News also reported that the parents of Nimrod Cohen and the brothers, David and Ariel Cunio, also spoke to their sons by telephone via a Hamas connection.

Israeli captives talk to their families over the phone shortly upon their release by the Palestinian resistance this morning as part of the exchange deal. pic.twitter.com/os6iAw8fs9

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 13, 2025

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, released a statement regarding the captive-prisoner exchange happening on Monday:

• We declare our commitment to the agreement reached and the timetables associated with it, as long as the occupation [Israel] adheres to them.
• The agreement reached is the result of the steadfastness of our people and the resilience of resistance fighters.
• The resistance was eager to stop the war of extermination, but the enemy thwarted all efforts.
• The enemy failed to recover its prisoners through military pressure, despite its superior intelligence and surplus force.
• The enemy submits and recovers its prisoners through an exchange deal, as the resistance had promised from the beginning.

The first seven Israeli captives held by Hamas have been handed over to the ICRC in northern Gaza. According to Al Jazeera, the captives have been in contact with their families and are reported to be in reasonable condition, able to walk without requiring medical assistance—unlike Palestinian detainees released from Israeli prisons, who are often in poor health amid reports of torture, mistreatment, and medical negligence.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Monday that the remaining 13 living captives will be released at 07:00 GMT in the central Gaza Strip.

About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are set to be released in exchange for the Israeli captives in Gaza:

• Among them are 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza.
• Another 250 prisoners are serving life or long sentences.
• Of those, 135 will be deported to Gaza or exiled abroad, 100 are expected to be sent to the occupied West Bank, and 15 will be released in occupied East Jerusalem.