Hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to watch the televised handover of three hostages from Gaza7xm, cheering, waving Israeli flags and shedding tears of joy — a big change from the tears of shock and anguish prompted by a similar release a week ago, when the hostages were clearly in poor physical condition.

“Three pieces have returned to my heart,” said Doron Zexer, a prominent advocate for the hostages, part of the crowd watching the ceremony in Gaza where the Red Cross received the three Israelis — Sasha Trupanov, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Iair Horn.

At last week’s release, the condition of the hostages set off shock waves across Israel, prompting many to compare them to Holocaust survivors.

That fueled pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to secure the release of the remaining hostages as quickly as possible,phl63 gaming and contributed to an emotional week in Israel. Hamas initially threatened to delay handing over any more captives, nearly derailing a cease-fire agreement.

But Saturday’s release went ahead as planned. There appeared to be fewer people gathered in Hostages Square — a plaza in Tel Aviv where families of the captives and their supporters have gone each week to watch live broadcasts of the hostage releases — than on previous release days.

ImageYair Horn, one of the three hostages released from Gaza on Saturday, being escorted by a Palestinian fighter.Credit...Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

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Among national universities, Princeton was ranked No. 1 again, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Stanford, which tied for third last year, fell to No. 4. U.S. News again judged Williams College the best among national liberal arts colleges. Spelman College was declared the country’s top historically Black institution.

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