UPDATE - Israel says hostages expected to be released early Monday under Gaza ceasefire deal

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Mohammad Sio

ISTANBUL (AA) – Israel said Sunday that hostages held in Gaza are expected to be released early Monday under a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Israel “is ready to receive hostages if they are released earlier,” said Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

“All 20 living hostages are expected to be released in one batch,” she said.

Bedrosian added that Israel will free Palestinian detainees once the hostages are safely returned from Gaza.

The daily Haaretz, citing unnamed Israeli security sources, said the transfer of living hostages to “assembly points” in Gaza has begun.

“It remains unclear whether they will be released from multiple locations or a single site,” the paper said.

US Vice President J.D. Vance told NBC News that the hostages could be released “any moment now.”

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that some families of Israeli captives killed in Gaza were informed their relatives would not be returned in the first phase of the deal.

Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, citing an unnamed Israeli official, said all hostages are expected to be released before US President Donald Trump arrives in Israel.

Trump is scheduled to land in Israel at 9:20 am local time (6:20 GMT) on Monday, meet with hostage families, and address the Knesset. He will depart Israel for Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh city at 1:00 pm (10:00 GMT), where he will attend a planned international peace summit.

The Egyptian presidency said the summit, co-chaired by Trump and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will bring together leaders from more than 20 countries.

The presidency said the summit seeks to “end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and usher in a new phase of regional security and stability.”

Under the Gaza ceasefire deal, 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life sentences and 1,700 others detained in Gaza since October 2023, will be released in exchange for 48 Israeli hostages, including 20 alive.

Trump announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a 20-point plan he laid out on Sept. 29 to bring a ceasefire to Gaza, release all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire Gaza Strip. The first phase of the deal came into force on Friday.

A second phase of the plan calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza without Hamas’ participation, the deployment of a multinational force, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed over 67,600 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.