Eight Israeli hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza - BBC News
Israel frees Palestinian prisoners in return for hostages, hours before a truce is due to expire.
A senior Israeli doctor has told the BBC that some of the youngest hostages released from captivity by Hamas in recent days looked like "shadows of children" upon their arrival at hospital.

Dr Efrat Bron-Harlev, head of the Schneider Children's Medical Center in Tel Aviv, said 26 of the 100 or so hostages released so far had been taken to recover at her hospital. She told the BBC that while many had since been released from medical care, their recovery was proving to be a "painful process" - especially for younger hostages.

"I would say that when they come, they don't really look like children, I would say they would look more like shadows of children, kind of hollow children, they have no impression on their face," Bron-Harlev observed. "Not sad, not happy, just no impression, they hardly speak, very, very quiet. If they do speak, it's very, very quiet."

"Some of them are having a hard time getting up from a chair, you know, like little like older people that need some help while they get up from a chair."

Their experience of captivity in Gaza varied, Bron-Harlev said, noting that some hostages were kept in one location, while others were frequently on the move. All reported living under "very strict conditions" in captivity.

"It takes them quite a while to really believe that they are no longer in a place that might hurt them, that they're in a safe place," she said. "I don't think that there is a lot of experience around the world of so many children and families being in captivity... for such a long time, either as individuals or as a group."