Hamas to begin releasing Israeli hostages Monday ahead of Trump-led peace summit in Egypt

Hamas will begin releasing Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Monday morning as part of a major prisoner exchange deal, a senior official from the Palestinian militant group told AFP. The move comes just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump is set to chair an international summit in Egypt on his Middle East peace plan.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan confirmed the timeline, saying, “According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed.”

Under the deal’s first phase, Hamas — whose October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel triggered the conflict — will release 20 hostages believed to still be alive in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Trump, Sisi to lead peace summit

Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will co-chair the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday afternoon, joined by leaders from more than 20 nations. The Egyptian presidency said the gathering aims “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and several European leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, are expected to attend.

It remains unclear whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will participate. Hamas said it would not attend the summit, emphasizing it had engaged in negotiations only through Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Next steps and key challenges

Despite the breakthrough, mediators face the difficult task of securing a long-term political deal that would see Hamas disarm and relinquish control of Gaza. Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said the second phase of Trump’s plan “contains many complexities,” while another Hamas official said disarmament was “out of the question.”

Under the U.S.-backed plan, Israeli forces would gradually withdraw from Gaza’s cities, replaced by a multinational security force from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. The force would be coordinated by a U.S.-led command center based in Israel.

Human toll and aftermath in Gaza

On Saturday, U.S. Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner visited Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians were returning to what remains of their homes. Ivanka Trump and Witkoff later joined a gathering in Tel Aviv with families of the remaining Israeli hostages, where crowds chanted, “Thank you, Trump.”

Hamas has until noon Monday to hand over 47 remaining hostages — living and dead — from the 251 abducted in the October 7 attacks, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians. The remains of one hostage held since 2014 are also expected to be returned. In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners, including those serving life sentences, and 1,700 Gazans detained since the war began.

Gaza in ruins

By Saturday evening, more than 500,000 Palestinians had returned to Gaza City, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported. Many found their homes reduced to rubble.

“I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust,” said Raja Salmi, 52, as she surveyed the ruins of her home in Al-Rimal. Drone footage showed entire neighborhoods flattened, with twisted metal and shattered concrete littering the streets.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry — figures the UN considers credible. More than half of the dead are believed to be women and children.

“The smell of death still lingers in the air,” said Sami Musa, 28, who returned to find his family’s home miraculously intact. “It felt like a ghost town — not Gaza.”