Gaza ceasefire: When will Hamas release Israeli hostages? Militant group says prisoner exchange will begin on…

Gaza ceasefire: Palestinian armed group Hamas, which recently signed a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel under US President Doland Trump’s Gaza peace plan, said the release of Israeli hostages would begin Monday morning as outlined in the deal.

When will Hamas release Israeli hostages?

According to senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, there are no new developments in the matter, and prisoner exchange would begin as scheduled, AFP reported. Israeli figures suggest there are currently 48 Israeli hostages in Gaza, who were abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when it launched a brazen terror attack inside the Jewish state, killing at least 1200 people.

Under the Trump Gaza peace plan, Hamas will return Israeli hostages in the first phase, following which Israel will release around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in a phased manner. Only 20 of the 48 hostages taken by Hamas are believed to be alive.

Hamas has also agreed to return the mortal remains of the slain hostages, but indicated that it would be difficult to locate the remains of some of the deceased within Trump’s 72-hour deadline, and Israel knows this.

Phase 1 of the Trump peace plan kicked in at Friday noon as Israeli troops withdrew to a designated border in Gaza, allowing displaced families to return to their homes.

Trump to chair Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt

Meanwhile, Doland Trump will co-chair the Gaza Peace Summit with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday. The summit, which will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, will be attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as well as leaders of more than 20 countries, with an aim to finalize a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza and promote stability in the region.

Notably, Hamas has previously declined to sign the Gaza peace agreement in Egypt because it disagreed with parts of Trump’s plan, terming the proposal for Hamas members to leave the Gaza Strip as “absurd”.