The Gaza peace process is set to move a step further on Monday with Israelis and Palestinians on the cusp of a momentous exchange of captives, while US President Donald Trump will celebrate his ceasefire deal at a signing ceremony in Egypt.
Israel said it expects all 20 surviving hostages to be released in one batch on Monday morning. Once freed by Hamas, they will first be handed over to the Red Cross before being passed to Israeli troops.
The ceasefire deal provides for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return. But there were last-minute negotiations on Sunday regarding the exact list of detainees to be freed.
Sources told The National the talks turned on six high-profile prisoners, including prominent Palestinian figure Marwan Al Barghouti, whom Israel is reluctant to release. Mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar were trying to broker a deal in which two of the six might be freed.
The exchange is the key plank of the “phase one” Gaza ceasefire deal agreed in Egypt last week. The truce appeared to hold over the weekend as Israel withdrew troops to an agreed line, while warning they maintained “operational readiness”.
Mr Trump could greet the freed hostages during his visit to the Middle East on Monday, when he will first address Israel's parliament before attending a signing ceremony for the peace deal in Egypt.
“The war is over,” Mr Trump told reporters as he departed the US, adding he thought the ceasefire would hold.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog said he will present the country's highest civilian award to his US counterpart for his role in securing the release of hostages and helping to end the war.
“It will be a great honour for me to present him with the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honour,” Mr Herzog said in a statement issued by his office. He said the award will be presented in the “coming months”.
Vice President JD Vance said the US was on the verge of achieving “true peace in the Middle East”. He told Fox News that President Trump's unconventional negotiation style should be credited for bringing about the ceasefire deal. “He didn't go down the failed pathway that previous Presidents and frankly both parties previously pursued,” Mr Vance said.
World leaders including Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are expected at the peace summit in Egypt, with hopes higher than ever that the two-year war is ending.
The talks in Sharm El Sheikh have not yet produced a final agreement on long-term reconstruction or political arrangements in Gaza. But the truce has lifted hopes of relieving the dire humanitarian situation in the strip, where the UN declared a famine in August.
Dozens of aid lorries entered Gaza at the southern Rafah crossing on Sunday as Egypt said it was sending 400 lorries loaded with supplies. The Israeli army said the number was expected to rise to 600 lorries per day, around the level the UN says is required.
Two years of Israeli bombardment have devastated the strip and forced most of Gaza's people to leave their homes. Health officials raised the war's death toll to 67,806 on Sunday, saying almost 120 bodies had been retrieved from under the rubble.
The bodies of 28 dead Israeli hostages are among those that may still need to be located. Any remains released by Hamas will be handed over in Israeli-held areas of Gaza, said a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
She called for the handover of prisoners to take place “without any sick displays by Hamas”. There have been previous cases of Hamas releasing captives in highly publicised and choreographed ceremonies, which Israel slammed as a humiliation.
A Hamas-run office for prisoners said there were “complex” issues preventing a final list from being made public. “Efforts are being made around the clock to overcome these obstacles and complete the required procedures,” it said.
The most contentious subject in Israel is the release of 250 “security prisoners”, a term typically used for people convicted of terrorism or facing related charges. The strongest opposition to the release of such prisoners comes from the Israeli far right.
Gaza's Interior Ministry meanwhile said it would pardon those who joined rival gangs opposing Hamas, as long as they turn themselves in and were not involved in murders. Israel has admitted working with some such groups.
