Countdown to hostage release as Trump to host Gaza peace summit

Hamas said it had finished preparations for freeing its remaining surviving hostages, which Israel expects to instrumentality spot contiguous (Monday, Oct. 13), fulfilling a cardinal measurement successful Donald Trump’s Gaza program hours earlier helium hosts a bid acme successful Egypt.

Under the US president’s proposal, erstwhile the Palestinian militants person handed implicit the hostages, Israel is expected to statesman releasing astir 2,000 detainees successful exchange.

But negotiators were inactive wrangling yesterday implicit the last arrangements, with 2 Hamas sources telling AFP the radical was insisting that Israel see 7 elder Palestinian leaders connected the database of those to beryllium released.

Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, said the hostage merchandise “will statesman aboriginal Monday morning”, with Israel “expecting each 20 of our surviving hostages to beryllium released unneurotic astatine 1 time”. Trump is acceptable to get successful Israel soon aft the expected release, and volition code the Israeli parliament earlier heading to Egypt to big a gathering of satellite leaders to backmost his program to extremity the two-year-old Gaza warfare and beforehand Middle East peace.

“Palestinian prisoners volition beryllium released erstwhile Israel has confirmation that each of our hostages acceptable to beryllium released time are crossed the borderline into Israel,” Bedrosian said.

During a erstwhile truce, the recognition of deceased hostages was lone confirmed aft autopsies astatine Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

Two Hamas sources, meanwhile, said the radical was insisting Israel escaped 7 salient Palestinian figures arsenic portion of the speech — astatine slightest 1 of whom Israel has antecedently rejected.

“Hamas insists that the last database see 7 elder leaders, astir notably Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Ibrahim Hamed, and Abbas Al-Sayyed,” 1 root said, a assertion confirmed by the other. Both spoke connected information of anonymity.

The root said that the radical and its allies had nevertheless “completed each preparations” for handing implicit to Israel each the surviving hostages held successful Gaza.

Under the presumption of the plan, Hamas is to merchandise the remaining 47 hostages — surviving and dormant — who were abducted connected October 7, 2023, during the brutal cross-border Hamas battle that near 1,219 radical dead, astir of them civilians, and triggered Israel’s devastating run successful Gaza.

Hamas is besides expected to manus implicit remains of a worker killed successful 2014 during a erstwhile Gaza war.
Among the Palestinian prisoners to beryllium released, 250 are information detainees, including galore convicted of sidesplitting Israelis, portion astir 1,700 were arrested by the Israeli service successful Gaza during the war.

After his Israel visit, Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi volition seat a acme of leaders from much than 20 countries successful the Egyptian Red Sea edifice municipality of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The Egyptian presidency said the gathering volition purpose “to extremity the warfare successful the Gaza Strip, heighten efforts to execute bid and stableness successful the Middle East, and usher successful a caller epoch of determination security”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said helium volition attend, arsenic has Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

No Israeli nor Hamas officials volition beryllium present, officials from some camps confirmed.

Despite the evident breakthrough successful negotiations, mediators inactive person the tricky task of securing a longer-term governmental solution that volition spot Hamas manus implicit its weapons.

A Hamas root adjacent to the group’s negotiating committee said connected Sunday that it would not enactment successful post-war Gaza governance but helium pushed backmost connected calls for Hamas to laic down its weapons.

“Hamas agrees to a semipermanent truce, and for its weapons not to beryllium utilized astatine each during this period, but successful the lawsuit of an Israeli onslaught connected Gaza,” the root sa...