A day of joy for Israel, and hope for the entire Middle East

With tears of joy, Israel welcomed the last living hostages home Monday, one of the brightest days the region has seen in a long time.

Among the ecstatic sights: after 737 days in separate captivity, and so many others.

Weeping families of redeemed hostages spontaneously declaimed the “Shehecheyanu” (a Hebrew prayer of thanksgiving) when they first saw their freed children — sounds to melt the hardest heart.

President Donald Trump, the author of this magnificent moment, expressed the dreams of all good-faith regional actors when he called “peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East” the “ultimate prize.”

No other world leader could have coaxed and cajoled the leaders of Turkey, Qatar and Egypt to put the squeeze on Hamas to concede to the beginnings of the peace plan.

Nor could anyone else have assembled the bringing peace to Gaza, including plans for relief and reconstruction: Note how often Trump said “together” as he talked of what comes next.

Yet plenty of shadows lurk: Two dozen families still await the return of their loved ones’ remains, uncertain if Hamas and its terror allies even can produce them as promised.

Israel released nearly 200 stone-cold killers among 2,000 total prisoner releases as its part of Phase One, and Hamas has yet to commit to Stage Two — its disarmament and replacement by a genuinely benign governing authority in Gaza.

Rather than lay down their arms, Hamas’ soldiers emerged from their tunnels, put their uniforms back on . . . and begun slaughtering Gazans who resist their rule.

The International Stabilization Force and Board of Peace will have their hands full in getting Gaza settled, rebuilt and growing, to put it mildly.

Yet none of that can erase Monday’s joys at the permanent end of a nation’s two-year ordeal.

The road ahead may be uncertain, but real hope for peace is truly on the table.