NewsNation National Correspondent Robert Sherman has found himself on the front lines of some of the world’s biggest stories: from Ukraine to Israel and across the United States. He shares what he’s seeing on the ground. Subscribe to his newsletter: Frontlines with Robert Sherman here.

(NewsNation) —  Greetings from Tel Aviv.

It’s not an exaggeration to feel like we live in a completely different world. Twenty living hostages have now been returned to Israel, and families like that of Guy Gilboa-Dalal or Alon Ohel, whom we’ve spoken with extensively, are reunited. Their dreams have come true. 

I remember first arriving in Israel on Oct. 8, 2023. On that day, there was still street-fighting taking place in southern Israel as the Israeli Defense Forces hadn’t regained full operational control of the territory. That day, we didn’t even know how many people were killed or taken hostage. 

Fast forward to this last Wednesday, and Hamas does not have a single living Israeli hostage in captivity. Quite the remarkable position to be in, given where we started. 

Hamas slow to return dead Israeli hostages

But not everybody is celebrating. Under the parameters of Phase 1 of the ceasefire, Hamas was supposed to return the remains of all 28 dead Israeli hostages they had in their possession. Four came home Monday. Overnight, four more bodies were delivered, but after a forensic analysis, Israel determined only three of those remains belonged to hostages and that the fourth was not a match.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office slammed the slow-walking of the process, saying, “We will not compromise on this and we will spare no effort until we return all of the hostages, until the last one.” 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said it appeared Hamas “misrepresented” the number of dead hostages they had in their possession, adding, “I want them back. That’s what they said. I want them back.”

Ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel is fragile

The deal is inherently fragile, and anything can derail the agreement, especially something this sensitive to hostage families. The remains of two American hostages, Omer Neutra and Itay Chen, are still not back in Israel. 

Trump, however, has vowed to keep the discussions going on Phase 2 of the agreement, which involves difficult subject matters to negotiate — including who will govern Gaza and the demilitarization of Hamas.

While speaking to reporters, however, he made clear that Hamas laying down its weapons is not optional. 

“We have told them we want to disarm and they will disarm,” Trump said. “And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently.

The big picture is that Trump wants to use this moment and reshape the Middle East by opening up diplomatic ties between Israel and other countries around the region.

But first, we have to navigate these next few days and weeks.

Also, in case you missed it, I’m out with an op-ed in the Daily Mail today, which you can read here, focusing on the Oct. 8 attacks and the pressure on the ground here that helped bring this deal together. 

Additionally, I sat down for an interview with Mediaite on some of my reporting in Gaza, which you can read or listen to here.

And lastly, we’re less than 60 days away from the release of my book, “Lessons From the Front.” I’m overwhelmed by the surge we’ve seen this week with so much news coming out of the Middle East, and I humbly thank you for that. For those still interested in preordering, you can do so through Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Bloomsbury.