Hamas and Israel Set for Hostage and Prisoner Exchanges

AFP/APP

Gaza: Hamas was set to release all surviving hostages on Monday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as US President Donald Trump headed to the region for a peace summit after declaring the war “over.”

Trump’s lightning visit to Israel and Egypt aims to celebrate his role in brokering last week’s ceasefire and hostage release deal — but comes at a delicate time as Israel and Hamas negotiate what comes next.

Under the US president’s proposed roadmap, once the Palestinian militants hand over the surviving hostages, Israel will begin releasing around 2,000 detainees in exchange.

Israel expects all 20 living hostages to be released to the Red Cross early Monday morning, according to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One at the start of the “very special” visit, Trump brushed off concerns about the durability of the ceasefire.

“I think it’s going to hold. I think people are tired of it. It’s been centuries,” he said. “The war is over. Okay? You understand that?”

In Israel, Trump is due to meet families of hostages seized by Hamas in the deadly October 7, 2023 cross-border attack that sparked the war, before addressing the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.

His trip is seen as a victory lap over the Gaza deal he helped broker through a 20-point peace plan announced in late September.

“Everybody’s very excited about this moment in time,” Trump said earlier as he prepared to board his plane at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

Key US officials accompanying him include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

Final Details

Negotiators were still finalizing the exchange arrangements late Sunday. Two Hamas sources told AFP that the group was insisting Israel include seven senior Palestinian leaders on the release list, one of whom Israel had previously rejected.

The sources said Hamas and its allies had nevertheless “completed all preparations” to hand over all surviving hostages to Israel. However, Israel does not expect the remains of all deceased hostages to be returned on Monday.

Under the plan, Hamas is to release 47 hostages — living and deceased — abducted during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which left 1,219 people dead, most of them civilians.

Hamas is also expected to hand over the remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza war.

Among the Palestinian prisoners to be freed, 250 are security detainees — many convicted of killing Israelis — while about 1,700 others were detained by the Israeli army during the recent conflict.

Peace Summit

After visiting Israel, President Trump will travel to Egypt, where he and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will co-host a summit of more than 20 world leaders to endorse his plan to end the Gaza war and promote peace in the Middle East.

Trump will seek to address lingering uncertainty surrounding the next phases of the peace roadmap — particularly Hamas’s refusal to disarm and Israel’s hesitation to commit to a full withdrawal from Gaza.

The US president insisted he had received “guarantees” from both sides and other key regional players for the initial and future stages of the deal.

“I don’t think they’re going to want to disappoint me,” Trump said.

He also expressed his willingness to visit Gaza, though he did not specify when such a visit could safely take place.

Under Trump’s plan, a new governing body for Gaza, which he said he would personally head, is to be established “very quickly.”

As Israel begins a partial withdrawal, Gaza would be overseen by a multinational force coordinated through a US-led command center based in Israel.

According to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, at least 67,806 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began — numbers the United Nations considers credible. The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.