Aid relief scaled up as Hamas confirms it will begin releasing Israeli hostages on Monday morning
Hamas will begin releasing Israeli hostages held in Gaza tomorrow morning, a senior official from the Palestinian militant group has told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold.
Israel’s military says it has completed the first phase of its withdrawal from Gaza, after the ceasefire, brokered by the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, came into effect on Friday morning.
Under its terms, Hamas has until 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Monday to release all 20 living hostages. This will be in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP.
The US president, Donald Trump, and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will then chair a summit of more than 20 countries in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-sheikh on Monday afternoon.
It will aim “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability,” the Egyptian presidency said.
The developments come as aid groups begin scaling up relief efforts in Gaza, parts of which have endured famine conditions and starvation because Israel denied and obstructed humanitarian aid from entering into the territory.
There are reports of aid trucks having arrived to southern Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt this morning.
Under the terms of the first phase of the deal, aid is meant to surge into Gaza, and humanitarian groups are preparing to send in about 600 truckloads of food and medical supplies a day.
We will have more on this later. Stick with us throughout the day as we provide the latest updates and analysis on how the terms of the ceasefire plan unfold on the ground.
Key events
As we mentioned in the opening summary, Israel is expected to release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving long sentences for serious security offences.
Hamas, in exchange, is expected to release 20 living hostages, followed by the return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.
On Friday, the Israeli justice ministry published the names of 250 prisoners to be freed, but excluded several high-profile prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat.
Israel views Barghouti as a terrorist leader. He is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted in 2004 in connection with attacks in Israel that killed five people.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has confirmed it refuses to release Barghouti.
Barghouti is a senior figure in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement who is hugely popular in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and has frequently been talked of as a future leader.
Saadat has been the general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for more than two decades.
He was accused of organising the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi, an ultranationalist who called for the mass expulsion of Palestinian people.
Saadat and four PFLP activists directly involved in the killing were eventually arrested by Palestinian police. In April 2002, a makeshift court sentenced the four to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years. Saadat was not charged, with Palestinian officials saying at the time they did not believe he was involved in the killing.
In an internationally brokered agreement that year, he was transferred to a Palestinian jail in the West Bank city of Jericho. In 2006, fearing he might be released, Israel raided the prison and took him and other Palestinians into custody. He was sentenced to 30 years in 2008. He is now in his early 70s.
Aid relief scaled up as Hamas confirms it will begin releasing Israeli hostages on Monday morning
Hamas will begin releasing Israeli hostages held in Gaza tomorrow morning, a senior official from the Palestinian militant group has told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continues to hold.
Israel’s military says it has completed the first phase of its withdrawal from Gaza, after the ceasefire, brokered by the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, came into effect on Friday morning.
Under its terms, Hamas has until 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Monday to release all 20 living hostages. This will be in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP.
The US president, Donald Trump, and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will then chair a summit of more than 20 countries in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-sheikh on Monday afternoon.
It will aim “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability,” the Egyptian presidency said.
The developments come as aid groups begin scaling up relief efforts in Gaza, parts of which have endured famine conditions and starvation because Israel denied and obstructed humanitarian aid from entering into the territory.
There are reports of aid trucks having arrived to southern Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt this morning.
Under the terms of the first phase of the deal, aid is meant to surge into Gaza, and humanitarian groups are preparing to send in about 600 truckloads of food and medical supplies a day.
We will have more on this later. Stick with us throughout the day as we provide the latest updates and analysis on how the terms of the ceasefire plan unfold on the ground.
