US President Donald Trump is expected to visit Israel on Monday and address the Knesset, making him the first American leader to do so in 17 years.
Mr Trump is also set to go to Egypt to participate in a Gaza peace plan signing ceremony. Egypt said it will host an “international peace summit” co-chaired by Mr Trump and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, with the leaders of at least 20 other countries expected to attend.
An Egyptian presidential statement issued late on Saturday said the summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El Sheikh is aimed at “ending the war in Gaza and bolstering efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East”.
French President Emmanuel Macron is also due in Egypt on Monday for talks in implementing the Gaza peace plan, the Elysee said.
Mr Trump's trip comes as a hostage-detainee exchange is scheduled to take place, with a Monday deadline, as part of the first phase of a 20-point peace plan for Gaza, that includes Israeli military redeployment and the unfettered entry of aid.
On Saturday, the Israeli prison service said it had started to transfer the first 250 detainees due to be released to two jails in the occupied West Bank and the Negev desert near the border with Egypt.
Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump's special envoy to the region, arrived in Gaza early on Saturday to observe the Israeli military redeployment, along with Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law, who holds no official position in the US administration. They were joined by the Israeli military's Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir and the head of the US military's Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, who said that the visit was part of the establishment of a task force that would support stabilisation efforts in Gaza, although American troops would not be deployed inside the enclave.
Israel published a list of 250 Palestinian detainees it will release in exchange for the 20 remaining living hostages and the remains of 28 more who have died in the course of the two-year war.
A senior Hamas official said on Friday that the group was in contact with mediators about several Palestinian leaders who Israel has refused to free under the US-brokered deal, including Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat.
Mr Barghouti, 66, is widely popular and considered a unifying Palestinian political figure. He is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail.
“The movement [Hamas] is insisting on their release and negotiations are still ongoing,” Mousa Abu Marzouk, the Hamas official, told Al Jazeera TV.
He said Israel turned down several other proposed names. When asked if those included Abdullah Barghouti, Hassan Salama, Ibrahim Hamed and Abbas Al Sayyed, he replied: “Yes. These are the most prominent names that the occupation always rejects.”
Questions also remain over who will govern Gaza, and whether Hamas will disarm after the first phase is over.
In Cairo, President Abdel Fatah El Sisi was quoted in a statement issued by his office on Saturday saying that he wanted the Gaza deal to be accorded "international legitimacy" through the UN Security Council.
"The president also emphasised the necessity of sending an international force to Gaza," said the statement, which appeared to suggest that the Egyptian leader wanted the Security Council to adopt in a binding resolution both the agreement and the establishment of an international force to maintain security in Gaza as provided for in Mr Trump's plan.
Mr El Sisi made his comments in a telephone conversation with the President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides, according to the statement.
The US and allies Egypt, Qatar and Turkey have been mediating to end the Gaza war since it broke out two years ago. They have successfully brokered two ceasefires - in November 2023 and January 2025 - before the one that went into effect on Friday.
Thousands of Gazans have meanwhile begun returning to the place they once called home amid the destruction of 90 per cent of the strip. Rubble clearing operations and the recovery of at least 116 bodies trapped under buildings destroyed by Israel have resulted in the death toll rising to 67,682 and counting.
Palestinians make their way back to Gaza city - in pictures
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Thousands of displaced Palestinians return to Gaza city from Nuseirat, using Al Rashid road, after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced. AFP -
A family on the move to Gaza city. The enclave's civil defence agency said Israeli troops began withdrawing from parts of the territory, particularly in Gaza city and Khan Younis. AFP -
Palestinians make their way along Al Rashid road towards Gaza city. AFP -
Many were returning to find their homes destroyed in Gaza city. EPA -
A man attempts to remove parts of the barbed-wire fence of the so-called 'Netzarim corridor' near Nuseirat, as people make their way back to Gaza city. AFP -
A car towing a cart with passengers moves along a dirt road to Gaza city. AFP -
Palestinians make their way along Al Rashid road toward Gaza city. AFP -
A man carries firewood on his shoulders past people making their way to Gaza city. AFP
An independent UN commission has described Israel's attacks on Gaza as "genocide".
Gaza's civil defence officials estimate there are about 9,500 bodies still buried under the vast areas of rubble.
Aid deliveries
Israel has given the UN the approval to begin delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza starting on Sunday, the military body in charge of assistance in the enclave confirmed to The National on Friday.
The confirmation comes after the ceasefire officially went into effect, and as the UN prepares to increase operations in the enclave, where more than two million people are in urgent need of food, water and medical supplies after two years of conflict.
The aid shipments will include 170,000 tonnes that have been positioned in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday that fuel, medical supplies and other critical materials have started flowing through the Karam Abu Salem crossing.
Gaza's police redeployed in areas that the Israeli army withdrew from. They were seen in videos with their faces covered, carrying weapons and helping secure the areas where people are trying to piece back the remnants of their lives.
