Hamas said it had finished preparations for freeing its remaining living hostages, which Israel expects to take place early Monday (October 13, 2025), fulfilling a key step in Donald Trump’s Gaza plan hours before he hosts a peace summit in Egypt.
Under the U.S. president’s proposal, once the Palestinian militants have handed over the hostages, Israel is expected to begin releasing around 2,000 detainees in exchange.
But negotiators were still wrangling Sunday (October 12) over the final arrangements, with two Hamas sources telling AFP the group was insisting that Israel include seven senior Palestinian leaders on the list of those to be released.
Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, said the hostage release “will begin early Monday (October 13) morning”, with Israel “expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time”.
Mr. Trump is set to arrive in Israel shortly after the expected release and will address the Israeli parliament before heading to Egypt to host a meeting of world leaders to back his plan to end the two-year-old Gaza war and promote Middle East peace.
