“In a matter of hours we will all be reunited,” Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, chief of Israel’s military headquarters, said in the statement. US President Donald Trump is also scheduled to visit Israel and Egypt on Monday to celebrate the armistice of the two-year war declared last week.
Trump said, “The war is over” and told reporters he hoped the ceasefire would hold. He also said he would be proud to visit Gaza.
Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said all 20 surviving hostages would be handed over to the Red Cross together, after which they would be taken to a military base to be reunited with families or, if necessary, immediately flown to a hospital.
Following the release of the hostages, Israel will release approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and acquire 28 hostages who are expected to die.
Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostages and missing persons coordinator, said an international task force would begin a search within 72 hours for dead hostages who have not been repatriated. Officials have said the search for their bodies, which may be under the debris, may take time.
US Vice President J. “The reality is that some of the hostages we may never get back,” D. Vance told Fox News.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was repeatedly mentioned by name during sloganeering at a rally in support of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, said in a statement that Monday would be “a path of healing and reconstruction.” Many Israeli leaders have accused him of dragging out the war for political reasons, which he rejects.
The timing of the release of Palestinian prisoners has not yet been announced. These include 250 people serving life sentences, as well as 1,700 prisoners captured from Gaza during the war and held without charge.
A Palestinian official said a Hamas delegation was negotiating the prisoner list with mediators in Cairo. The official said Hamas is pressing for the release of Marwan Barghouti, who is the Palestinian community’s most popular leader and a unifying figure, as well as several other life prisoners. The officer did not disclose his name to maintain confidentiality. Israel considers Barghouti a terrorist leader and had no immediate comment.
Israel has forbidden Palestinians in the West Bank from celebrating after the release of prisoners, a prisoner’s family and a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. The Israeli army did not react in this regard.
The Israeli military branch that handles humanitarian aid in Gaza said Sunday the flow of aid would be increased to about 600 trucks a day, as stipulated in the agreement.
“Large parts of Gaza are now depopulated,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief. He said the United Nations has a plan for the next two months, which includes the restoration of basic medical services, thousands of tons of food and fuel supplies and debris removal.
Egypt announced on Sunday it was sending 400 aid trucks to Gaza, which will be stopped for checks by Israeli troops. AP photos showed dozens of trucks carrying medicines, tents, blankets, food supplies and fuel at Egypt’s Rafah border crossing.
The United Nations has said it has about 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other aid available for Gaza. The future of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which replaced the UN aid scheme in May as Gaza’s main food supplier, remains unclear.
UNRWA, a UN agency that has the equivalent of about 6,000 truckloads of aid delivered to Egypt and Jordan, has also not provided clarity on its role. UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler said their warehouses contained three months’ worth of food for the entire population of Gaza.
Trump, who played a key role in finalizing the ceasefire agreement, will arrive in Israel on Monday morning. According to the schedule released by the White House, he will meet the families of the hostages and deliver a speech in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Trump will then travel to Egypt, where a “peace summit” will be held under the chairmanship of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, which will include regional and international leaders. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas will also attend the summit.
The long-term status of the ceasefire remains unclear. Many important questions related to the governance of Gaza and the future of Hamas, including the proposal to end its military power, have not yet been resolved.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Twitter that he had ordered the army to begin destroying tunnels built by Hamas under Gaza “under the supervision of a US-led international body” following the release of the hostages. However, it is not clear how Israeli forces will perform this task after withdrawing from Gaza.
Palestinians have begun returning to areas that were vacated by Israeli forces. Satellite images taken on Saturday showed many vehicles heading towards Gaza City.
Palestinian flags were visible amidst the dust and debris. Mohammad Sami told that he immediately went to his house, which was in Jabaliya.
“It was completely destroyed, just like the rest of Jabaliya,” Sami said. “It seemed as if there had never been any house here.”
Armed police in Gaza City and southern Gaza are patrolling streets and protecting aid trucks in areas where Israeli forces have begun to withdraw. This police is part of the Hamas Interior Ministry.
The ministry said in a statement that they would allow members of armed groups not involved in the killing of Palestinians to surrender from Monday so they can “repent and receive amnesty.”
Primary rescue workers are searching for bodies under the debris. Health officials said 233 bodies have been brought to the hospital since Friday, some of which were mere bones.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Yasir al-Burais said his family had recovered the bodies of two cousins. “For five months we could not recover the bodies,” he said.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas troops launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory attacks have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says about half of the dead were women and children. The ministry is under Hamas control and is considered by the United Nations and many independent experts to be the most reliable data on wartime casualties.
