Just weeks after the massacre of October 7, 2023, Dana Felz-Russo came to what was becoming known as Hostages Square, in central Tel Aviv, with a table and a box of 200 T-shirts a friend had printed — aiming to raise awareness for the 251 hostages who had recently been kidnapped to Gaza.

On Thursday morning, nearly two years later, Felz-Russo stood cheering and hugging with seven other women under a broad tent displaying a dizzying array of merchandise: T-shirts in Hebrew and English, pins, hats, jewelry, posters, tote bags and more. Yellow umbrellas reading “Now!” were sold out amid intermittent rain.

Since she first began selling the apparel — with proceeds going to support advocacy efforts for the hostages — she’s built a squad of 110 volunteers who staff several points of sale 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

They call themselves the “Shirt Team.” And they hope that soon, their work will be done. Like thousands of others coming to Hostages Square on Thursday morning, they were celebrating the announcement of a deal just hours earlier to bring home the 48 captives still held by terror groups in Gaza — the people who have been the focus of their efforts for many long months.

“I hope we can close up and go home,” she said to applause from a small crowd of onlookers. Afterward, in an interview, she added that if and when the hostages come back, “I think we’ll change the symbols to, ‘We returned them, and now we’re living.'”

That mix of cautious optimism and euphoria pervaded Hostages Square on Thursday, as relatives of hostages and their supporters filled the plaza both to celebrate and anticipate the deal. It was announced in the early hours of the morning on Thursday and was due to be ratified by the government in the evening. The hostages — some 20 living, at least 26 thought to be dead — are meant to come home within the subsequent 72 hours.

At the square, a giant clock continued to count the 733-plus days during which the hostages have been in captivity. An image of an hourglass stood with the sand collected at the bottom. But in the crowd, there was a feeling that a difficult era was ending, and that the return so many had hoped for was finally at hand.

“There have been so many moments of longing and suffering here,” said Misha Nataf, who came to Hostages Square from Haifa along with his wife Yaara and their 10-month-old son, Ilan. Nataf said that, aside from the period surrounding his baby’s birth, he’s traveled down from Haifa to the square every week.

“We came here as a corrective, in order to really celebrate with everyone, and it’s really exciting,” he said. “It was important for me to be here today.”

He added: “The time for repair and redemption, and for rebuilding, has come, that we should build a better world and a better society.”

Tamar Hertanu, who came from the suburb of Kiryat Ono with her three grandchildren, also said it felt like a moment to show up.

“The younger generation also needs to know about the difficult thing we’ve gone through, that we’re at the end of now,” she said. “We talk about it with them already in language they understand: the difficult thing that the people of Israel went through, and our revival.”

Another weekly rally attendee, Rachel Shani Stopper, said she came from work, and found herself doing something she hadn’t done there before — belting out songs and dancing with friends.

Shortly after a downpour sent the crowd scrambling under awnings and tents, Shani Stopper and a few others were in the middle of the plaza leading a group in Israel and Jewish standards — from “Hava Nagila” to “L’shana Haba’a,” a song projecting optimism about the year to come.

Sometimes they danced in place. At other moments, they joined in a classic Israeli folk dancing circle, the dancers joining together at intervals.

“For two years we’ve held the sadness, pain and frustration, and now it’s just coming out, you can’t control it,” she said. “Yes, we’re waiting to see them here, but the happiness that it’s signed that there’s an agreement, that brings it all out.”

Avi Loenstein, who came with his wife Ofra Zion, also skipped work to come to the square.

“I’m here every Saturday night,” he said.”This is the first time I’m coming here with a smile.”

Others were more hesitant, waiting for the hostages to come home before rejoicing.

“We’ll hope for the best,” said Alon Shirizly, a frequent attendee at rallies to free the hostages who was sporting a multicolored Tembel hat and a red shirt that said, “Without them, home is gone.”

“We’re only at the beginning of a very long road,” he said. “For the moment, there’s euphoria, but we need to remember that we need to bring back 20 living hostages, and another 28 fallen who may not be found.”

After the hostages return, he said, he plans to take a break. “The time has come to rest after two years in the streets,” he said, adding, “First of all, I want to see everyone here.”

Rotem Cooper, son of slain hostage Amiram Cooper, said at the square that he had “distorted” feelings, but is hoping for a measure of “closure” following the announcement of the deal.

“You don’t make any preparations, you take it one day at a time,” he told reporters. “We want to get some closure. We’re not trying to forget… but we want some small closure and to focus more on building.”

His father, according to the IDF, was murdered in captivity after being taken hostage. Rotem’s mother, Nurit, was also taken captive but released weeks after the attack in a humanitarian gesture.

Israel expects that a number of the slain hostages’ bodies may not be found or returned. Rotem said he is focusing on supporting the living hostages to be released, including those from Nir Oz, which his father co-founded.

“My only preparations are to cancel everything on my calendar and to be here for the families, first of all for the living hostages,” he said. “First thing, let’s receive them.”

If the terror group does not return his father’s body, he said, “It’s too horrible to think about.”

He also had harsh words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We failed as a society, certainly the leadership,” he said. “And above all, the prime minister doesn’t get points because he’s bringing my father back in a body bag.”

Of his father, Rotem said: “He’s a person who established the state, established the kibbutz. He should not have met his end like this.”

The one leader to get praise from across the crowd was US President Donald Trump, whom many credited with bringing the deal to fruition. One was Miki Ziv, a protest regular who said she’d been standing in the square since 5 a.m.

Ziv was waving large Israeli and American flags while wearing a pink visor reading “TRUMP LAS VEGAS” in capital letters, a souvenir relatives brought back from the US for her. The American flag, she said, belongs to a friend traveling in Thailand who asked her to take care of it for him.

She was also critical of her own government’s handling of the crisis.

“We understood that Trump would bring back the hostages and that’s what happened, unfortunately,” she says. “We trusted our own government, but God wanted this and Trump gave it a big push for things to happen here.”

Of the US president, she added: “Whoever steps out of line a bit, they succeed, so hats off to him.”

Others showed up at the square in tribute costumes to Trump. One wore what appeared to be a paper mask of the president’s head, a loose-fitting black suit and tie, and Israeli and American flags. Another wore a red-and-white striped dress and a star-spangled blue hat, and carried a huge sign reading “We [heart] Trump.”

Trump has been framing the deal as a gateway to broader Middle East peace. For now, many of the attendees at the plaza were more focused on the immediate task of welcoming the hostages home, and providing a fitting burial to those who have been slain.

But some people took a moment to consider what would happen to Hostages Square once there are no more hostages.

“I would like to come back to regular life,” Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said in a brief interview. “This is it. This is a public square, and life changes.”

But Felz-Russo hopes that the square where she has spent so much of the last two years will retain a little of what it has become — and that it will also open the door to hope.

“I want there to be a memorial to October 7 here, that we’ll always remember those who fought, those who we abandoned, those we weren’t there for,” she said. “And those who returned, that we’ll be happy, and go back to living.”