Hamas says ‘Israeli’ captives to be released from Gaza before Trump peace summit in Egypt

Hamas will begin releasing ‘Israeli’ captives held in Gaza on Monday morning, a top official from the Palestinian group told AFP, before US President Donald Trump chairs an international summit in Egypt on his peace plan for the region.

Read more: Hamas warns second phase of Trump Gaza plan will be complex

As part of the deal's first phase, Hamas will release the captives, 20 of whom ‘Israel’ believes are still alive, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees.

"According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed," Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview Saturday.

Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will then chair a summit of more than 20 countries in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday afternoon, the Egyptian presidency announced.

The meeting will aim "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", it said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he will attend, as has Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgia Miloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

There was no immediate word on whether ‘Israel's’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be there while Hamas said it would not take part as it had "acted principally through... Qatari and Egyptian mediators" during talks, Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said.

Despite the apparent breakthrough, mediators still have the tricky task of securing a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand in weapons and step aside from governing Gaza.

Badran said the second phase of Trump's plan "contains many complexities and difficulties" while one Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said disarming was "out of the question".

Multinational force

Under the Trump plan, as ‘Israel’ conducts a phased withdrawal from Gaza's cities, it will be replaced by a multi-national force from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a US-led command centre in ‘Israel’.

On Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper, Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner visited Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were again on the move, returning to their devastated homes.

Witkoff, Kushner and Trump's daughter Ivanka then went on to Tel Aviv to attend a gathering with the families of the remaining ‘Israeli’ captives held in Gaza, where crowds shouted "Thank you Trump".

Hamas has until noon on Monday to hand over 47 remaining captives -- living and dead -- from the 251 taken in the attack two years ago.

The remains of one more captive, held in Gaza since 2014, are also expected to be returned.

In exchange, ‘Israel’ will release 250 detainees, including some serving life sentences for deadly anti-‘Israeli’ attacks, and 1,700 Gazans detained by the military since the war broke out.

The ‘Israeli’ prison service said Saturday it had moved the 250 national security detainees to two prisons ahead of the handover.