Hamas will begin releasing Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Monday morning, according to a senior official from the group, marking the start of a major prisoner exchange deal ahead of an international summit in Egypt focused on Middle East peace.
The release is part of the first phase of a broader agreement in which Hamas will free 20 Israeli hostages — believed by Israel to still be alive — in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
“The prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in an interview with AFP on Saturday.
Later that day, former US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-chair a summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. More than 20 countries are expected to attend, including the UK, France, Italy, and Spain, along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The summit aims to push for an end to the conflict in Gaza, promote peace efforts, and strengthen regional security.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not confirmed attendance, and Hamas will not participate, citing its reliance on Qatari and Egyptian mediators throughout the negotiation process.
Despite the progress, key challenges remain. A long-term political resolution would require Hamas to disarm and relinquish control of Gaza — demands the group is unlikely to accept. A Hamas official, speaking anonymously, said disarmament is “out of the question.”
Under Trump’s proposed plan, Israel would gradually withdraw from Gaza’s urban centers, handing over control to a multinational force made up of troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a US-led command center in Israel.
On Saturday, US Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Gaza. Kushner and Trump’s daughter Ivanka later joined a gathering in Tel Aviv with families of the remaining hostages, where they were met with chants of “Thank you Trump.”
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is among the remaining hostages, said: “We finally feel hope, but we cannot and will not stop now.”
Hamas has until noon Monday to hand over 47 remaining hostages — both living and deceased — from the 251 kidnapped during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians. The remains of a hostage held since 2014 are also expected to be returned.
In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including those convicted of deadly attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained since the war began. The Israeli prison service has already transferred the 250 national security detainees to two designated prisons ahead of the swap.
Meanwhile, as a fragile ceasefire holds, Gaza’s civil defence agency reports that over 500,000 Palestinians have returned to Gaza City. Many found their homes in ruins.
“I stood before it and cried,” said Raja Salmi, 52, after discovering her house in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood was destroyed. “All those memories are now just dust.”
Drone footage from AFP revealed entire city blocks flattened, with buildings reduced to tangled steel and concrete. Survivors picked through the debris, hoping to salvage remnants of their former lives.
Sami Musa, 28, was relieved to find his family’s home still intact. “It felt like a ghost town, not Gaza,” he said. “The smell of death still lingers in the air.”
According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 67,682 people, more than half of them women and children. The United Nations considers these figures credible, though they do not separate civilians from combatants.
In preparation for a potential easing of conditions, Israel has allowed humanitarian agencies to begin transporting 170,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza, pending the maintenance of the ceasefire.