Hamas hands over 7 Israeli hostages to Red Cross

Hamas has handed over seven surviving Israeli hostages to Red Cross.

Earlier, a Red Cross convoy was on its way to pick up a first group of Israeli hostages to be freed by Hamas as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal, the Israeli military said Monday.

US President Donald Trump has departed on a trip to Israel and Egypt, where he will co-host a Gaza peace summit with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The following are the latest key developments:

Hostage-prisoner exchange

The Gaza peace deal hinges on both sides adhering to an agreement to exchange hostages seized from Israel in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The initial stage of the ceasefire deal includes the release of 47 Israeli living and dead hostages taken on October 7, 2023 in exchange for 250 prisoners and 1,700 Gazans held by Israel since the war broke out.

Hamas is also expected to hand over the remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza war.

Hamas’s armed wing on Monday confirmed that it was preparing to release the living hostages and published a list of 20 names and shortly afterwards, Israel’s military said the Red Cross was on its way to pick up the first Gaza hostages.

An army statement said the handover would take place at “a meeting point in the northern Gaza Strip where several hostages will be transferred”.

Israel expects all 20 living hostages to be released to the Red Cross “early Monday morning”, according to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, ahead of a midday (0900 GMT) deadline under the terms of the ceasefire agreement proposed by Trump.

Netanyahu’s spokesperson said the prisoners would be “released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel”.

Israel does not expect all of the dead hostages to be returned on Monday.

Gaza summit

Trump and Sisi will chair the Gaza peace summit of more than 20 world leaders on Monday in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh.

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 and stability”, the Egyptian president’s office said.

On Sunday, the Egyptian foreign ministry said a “document ending the war in the Gaza Strip” was expected to be signed during the “historic” gathering.