Tel aviv: As the remaining surviving hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were reunited with their families on Monday, world leaders turned their attention to achieving lasting peace for the devastated territory.
According to Ghana News Agency, in a speech to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, US President Donald Trump hailed ‘the end of an age of terror and death.’ He described the deal between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza as ‘the historic dawn of a new Middle East.’ While his words were met with loud applause and a standing ovation, skepticism remains over whether the ceasefire and peace plan for Gaza will hold.
Hamas handed over the 20 remaining living hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross, in two groups on Monday. The hostages, who Israeli media said were all in ‘good condition,’ were then taken back to Israel, after 738 days in captivity. There, they received medical checks, showers, and new clothing, before being reunited with their families. Crowds gathered in central Tel Aviv’s ‘Hostage Square’ to watch the return of the hostages on large screens.
During his visit to Israel, Trump also met the families of hostages who had been released in earlier phases, shown in videos published by the White House. The release of the hostages is to be followed later by the handover of the bodies of the remaining 28 deceased hostages, a process which is to be completed by Monday evening, according to the 72-hour deadline agreed as part of the ceasefire.
However, Hamas announced that it would only hand over four of the 28 deceased captives on Monday, publishing the names on Telegram of the four people, whose remains would be handed over. The Israeli military had earlier said it does not expect all the bodies to be handed over by the deadline. ‘This represents a blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas. We expect Israel’s government and the mediators to take immediate action to rectify this grave injustice,’ the Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote on X.
In return for the release of the hostages, Israel is to free around 1,700 Palestinians, who have been detained since October 7, 2023, and around 250 prisoners, some of whom are serving life sentences. The first buses carrying prisoners released from Ofer Prison in the West Bank near Jerusalem, arrived in Ramallah, television images showed. Shortly before the buses departed, Israeli security forces used tear gas on those waiting near the prison, including journalists, the television broadcast showed. The Israeli military has in recent days warned relatives of those being released that any celebrations are strictly prohibited.
The exchanges between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group are the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire agreed in Egypt last week after two years of war, and first announced by Trump. Further steps envisioned under the plan include a complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Gaza Strip, an international stabilization force, and the disarmament of Hamas.
As Trump addressed the Knesset, world leaders were arriving in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh for a summit, aimed at turning the first stage of the 20-point plan into a genuine peace. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, welcomed leaders including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the Red Sea resort town on Monday. Trump, who is co-chairing the meeting with al-Sissi, was expected to arrive later in the afternoon.
More than 20 leaders are expected to attend a signing ceremony, to seal the agreement between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States. The event aims to consolidate the fragile ceasefire that Trump helped broker, and advance long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, according to the Egyptian presidency.
During the special sitting of the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed his support for the deal with Hamas to end the Gaza war, heaping praise on Trump. ‘I am committed to this peace,’ Netanyahu said, adding that Israel’s enemies now ‘understand that attacking Israel on October 7 was a catastrophic mistake.’
Hamas also emphasized its commitment to the ceasefire agreement. ‘We declare our commitment to the agreement and its associated timetables, as long as the occupation [Israel] adheres to them,’ the group’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement. The group said Israel had ‘surrendered’ in the war after failing to free the hostages through military pressure.
The war in Gaza began after the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, when Hamas and other Palestinian militants carried out a cross-border assault on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 others to the Gaza Strip. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent conflict, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in figures seen as credible by the UN. Most of the coastal strip has been reduced to rubble.