Once Israel confirms all 20 living captives are in its territory, it will start releasing Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas has released seven Israeli captives into the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as the hotly anticipated first phase of a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza unfolds.
Cheers broke out in Israel, where tens of thousands of people had gathered to watch public screenings of the handovers on Monday, as television channels announced that the captives were with the ICRC.
The Israeli military confirmed the release, saying in a post on X that the seven released captives were being accompanied by the army and forces from the Shin Bet intelligence services on their return to Israel, where they would undergo an initial medical assessment.
The military names the released captives as Matan Angrest, Gali and Ziv Berman, Alon Ohel, Eitan Mor, Omri Miran and Guy Gilboa Dalal.
Families would be reunited with their loved ones before the captives were flown to hospitals for further treatment, the DPA news agency reported.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the released captives were “reported to be in reasonable condition, walking without needing medical assistance”.
Under the deal, Hamas will release the 20 living Israeli captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, many without charge.
An official involved in the exchange told Reuters that all the Palestinian prisoners due to be released had boarded buses at Israeli prisons.
Reporting from Khan Younis in Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said a designated medical point had been set up at the Nasser Hospital to offer medical checks to the returning Palestinian prisoners before they are reunited with their families.
Thousands of Palestinians had gathered outside the hospital waiting to welcome the released detainees, she said.
Speaking on Sunday, government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said Israel anticipates all 20 captives would be returned early on Monday.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Monday that the remaining 13 living captives will be released at 07:00 GMT in the central Gaza Strip.
A Hamas source earlier told Al Jazeera Arabic that the captives had been moved to three locations in the enclave in advance of their transfer to the ICRC.
Once Israel has confirmed all its captives are inside Israeli territory, it will begin releasing Palestinian prisoners, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
The prisoners include 250 Palestinians serving life sentences. Imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, whose release Palestinians have long sought, will not be among them, Israel has said.
Some prisoners will be released in the occupied West Bank, where their relatives have been instructed by Israel not to hold celebrations or speak to the media.
Israel is also preparing to receive the bodies of 28 captives confirmed to have died in captivity, Bedrosian said.
Speaking in a televised address on Sunday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped the captives’ release would be a moment of unity for the country, despite controversy over his handling of the war.
“This is an emotional evening … because tomorrow, our children will return to our borders,” said Netanyahu, quoting a biblical verse. “Tomorrow is the beginning of a new path – a path of rebuilding, a path of healing and, I hope, a path of united hearts.”
Some of the families of captives have criticised Netanyahu, accusing him of prioritising military victory over their release. On Saturday, when the United States envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, praised Netanyahu’s leadership at a rally in Tel Aviv, many in the crowd booed.
The planned exchange comes three days after the Israeli government approved the first phase of a deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza, and just as US President Donald Trump, who spearheaded the agreement, visits Israel before a summit in Egypt.
Trump left for Israel from the Joint Base Andrews near Washington, DC, on Sunday afternoon, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and CIA chief John Ratcliffe accompanying him on Air Force One.
“This is going to be a very special time,” said Trump before boarding the flight. “Everybody’s cheering.”
On board Air Force One, Trump told reporters that the captives may be released “a little early”, that his relationship with Netanyahu was good, and that Qatar deserved credit for the role it had played in mediating the ceasefire.
“The war is over. You understand that,” he added.
Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because the network is banned in Israel, said: “It is Trump’s show.”
“He will be arriving in Israel, meeting with the families of captives, addressing the Knesset, and then going to Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has summoned the leaders of more than 20 countries.”
As part of the Trump-led ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces have withdrawn from parts of Gaza, including Gaza City and other northern areas, although they still control more than half of its territory.
Palestinians returning to the combat zones they were displaced from have found widespread devastation, or “wastelands” where their neighbourhoods once stood, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported from Gaza City.
Humanitarian aid has begun to trickle into the enclave as part of the ceasefire, with dozens of trucks arriving on Sunday. But distribution remains slow for a population that has endured months of extreme deprivation, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said.
“People are not waiting only for food, but also for tents, mobile shelters, solar panels and desperately-needed medical equipment and medicines – items largely unavailable for the past two years,” Khoudary said from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. “Most people have lost their savings, have no access to bank accounts, and are completely dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.”
The Gaza summit, scheduled for Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, will be cochaired by Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
More than a dozen world leaders are expected to attend, including United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said neither he nor Iran’s president would accept an invitation to the summit because they could not “engage with counterparts who have attacked the Iranian People”, in reference to the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this year.
Although Israel and Hamas said they would not participate, Cairo has hailed the summit as a “historic” event that will seek “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East”.
Egypt said a “document ending the war in the Gaza Strip” is also expected to be signed at the summit.
Despite the ceasefire progress, many details about the second phase of the deal, which is still to be negotiated, need to be ironed out, including the exact makeup of a post-war administration for Gaza and the fate of Hamas.
The second phase is expected to involve a phased Israeli withdrawal, Hamas’s disarmament, the establishment of new security and governance arrangements, and reconstruction.
“After the big day tomorrow for Trump, after the release of the hostages … then comes the hard work,” Adnan Hayajneh, professor of international relations at the University of Qatar, told Al Jazeera. “If you look at the situation in Gaza, it’s like an earthquake happened … There’s no government, there’s no schools, there’s nothing there.”
US Vice President JD Vance appeared to acknowledge on Sunday that the road to stability would be difficult. “It is going to take consistent leverage and consistent pressure from the president of the United States on down,” he told US broadcaster CBS.
In a separate interview with ABC, Vance said the 200 US soldiers reportedly being sent to Israel to monitor the ceasefire are not intended to have a combat role and will not deploy to Palestinian territory.
“The idea that we’re going to have troops on the ground in Gaza, in Israel, that that is not our intention, that is not our plan,” Vance said. (Aljazeera)
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