Hamas to Release Israeli Hostages Ahead of Trump Peace Summit

Hamas has announced that it will begin releasing Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Monday morning, according to a senior official from the Palestinian militant group. The move comes ahead of an international summit in Egypt, chaired by US President Donald Trump, aimed at promoting his peace plan for the region.

As part of the first phase of the agreement, Hamas, whose deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 sparked the ongoing conflict, will release the captives—20 of whom Israel believes are still alive—in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

“According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed,” said Hamas official Osama Hamdan in an interview with AFP on Saturday.

The summit, to be held in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday afternoon, will be co-chaired by Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian presidency announced.

The meeting aims:

• To end the war in the Gaza Strip.
• To enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.
• To usher in a new era of regional security and stability.

Notable attendees include:

Hamas has stated it will not attend, having conducted talks primarily through Qatari and Egyptian mediators, according to political bureau member Hossam Badran. There has been no immediate confirmation on the attendance of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Despite the apparent breakthrough, mediators face the complex task of securing a longer-term political solution, including the disarmament of Hamas and a potential transition of governance in Gaza.

“The second phase of Trump’s plan contains many complexities and difficulties,” said Badran, while an anonymous Hamas official noted that disarming the group is “out of the question.”

Under Trump’s plan, Israel will conduct a phased withdrawal from Gaza’s cities, to be replaced by a multi-national force drawn from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a US-led command centre in Israel.

On Saturday, US officials including CENTCOM chief Admiral Brad Cooper, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner visited Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were returning to their devastated homes.

The delegation, accompanied by Ivanka Trump, then travelled to Tel Aviv to meet with families of the remaining Israeli hostages, where crowds reportedly shouted, “Thank you Trump.”

Hostage families expressed mixed relief and caution:

Hamas has until noon on Monday to hand over 47 remaining hostages, living and deceased, from the 251 abducted in the October 2023 attack, which resulted in 1,219 deaths, mostly civilians. Additionally, the remains of a hostage held since 2014 are expected to be returned.

In return, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including individuals serving life sentences for anti-Israeli attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained since the outbreak of war. The Israeli prison service confirmed that detainees had been moved to two prisons ahead of the handover.

More than 500,000 Palestinians had returned to Gaza City by Saturday evening, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.

Residents described the devastation:

“We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” said Raja Salmi, 52.
“I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust.”

Drone footage captured entire city blocks reduced to twisted concrete and steel, with roads clogged by debris and destroyed buildings.

The UN humanitarian office reported that 170,000 tonnes of aid could start entering Gaza if the ceasefire holds.

Men, women, and children navigated streets filled with rubble, collapsed concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles, and debris.

Personal accounts:

The Gaza health ministry, run by Hamas, reported that Israel’s campaign has killed at least 67,682 people, a figure the UN considers credible. The statistics do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but indicate that more than half of the dead are women and children.