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Trump to address the Israeli parliament on Monday
William Christou
My colleague William Christou has some detail about Donald Trump’s diplomatic movements tomorrow in what will likely be a histroic day:
Trump will visit Jerusalem on Monday to speak at the Knesset roughly at the same time as the hostage-detainee swap, as well as meeting families of the hostages.
Trump will then fly to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt where he will co-chair a “peace summit” attended by the leaders of more than 20 countries aimed at finalising a permanent truce in Gaza.
Though the path ahead for the deal was murky, Trump said he expected a ceasefire would continue. “They’re all tired of the fighting,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that there was a “consensus” on the way forward.
The hostage-detainee swap is the first step in Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza. A ceasefire has been in place since Friday afternoon, but most of the details of the Trump plan need to be negotiated before a lasting end to the war is established.
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Updated at 15.44 CEST
Palestinian prisoners to be freed after all Gaza hostages confirmed to be in Israel – Netanyahu’s office
Israel will begin releasing Palestinian prisoners once it has confirmation that all hostages held in Gaza have arrived in the country, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu, added.
“Palestinian prisoners will be released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel,” she told journalists in Tel Aviv.
During previous ceasefires, the identities of the remains of some hostages were confirmed after their return to Israel.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees, the vast majority of whom will be sent to Gaza or exiled to neighbouring countries.
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Updated at 15.28 CEST
Israel expects all 20 living hostages to be released by Hamas tomorrow at the same time
Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, gave the following statement to the media about the logistics of how the hostage release will work tomorrow morning:
Israel is prepared and is ready to immediately receive all of our hostages. The release of our hostages will begin early Monday morning. We are expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time to the Red Cross and transported among six to eight vehicles without any sick displays by Hamas, the terror organisation.
The hostages will then be driven to forces inside of Israeli controlled parts of Gaza and then transferred to the Re’im base in southern Israel, where they will then reunite with their families.
Israel is ready … if a living hostage requires any urgent medical attention, they will be brought to a medical facility immediately.
The prime minister instructed Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for the captives and the missing, to arrange with the ICRC to have a convoy of ambulances ready for our hostages and all equipment needed in case a hostage needs immediate medical support, in which case, both Soroka and Barzilai hospitals will be on standby.
There will be medical staff accompanying the hostages during their entire journey back to Israel. From Re’im, the hostages will travel with their families to one of three main hospitals.
The bodies of the deceased hostages will be put in coffins draped with Israeli flags and subsequently brought to a forensic institute for identification, the Israeli government spokesperson added.
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Updated at 16.18 CEST
JD Vance says Gaza hostages could be released ‘any moment’
US vice-president JD Vance said on Sunday that Israeli hostages could be released from Gaza “any moment now”.
“It really should be any moment now,” the vice-president told NBC News’ Meet the Press programme when asked about the timing for the release of the hostages by Hamas.
JD Vance also said that when Trump visits Israel tomorrow morning he plans to greet the hostages after Hamas has released them.
“You can’t say exactly the moment they will be released, but we have every expectation … that he will be greeting the hostages,” he said.
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Updated at 15.45 CEST
An Israeli government spokesperson has said that the release of hostages held in Gaza will begin early Monday morning, Reuters reports.
All 20 living hostages are expected to be released together at one time, she added.
She said Israel is ready to receive the bodies of the 28 deceased hostages once the living hostages have been returned.
Earlier Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, suggested that Hamas might start freeing hostages as early as tonight.
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Associated Press footage showed dozens of trucks crossing the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip, the news wire said. The Egyptian Red Crescent said they carried medical supplies, tents, blankets, food and fuel.
The trucks will head to the inspection area in the Kerem Shalom crossing for screening by Israeli troops.
Abeer Etifa, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program, said workers were clearing roads inside Gaza to facilitate delivery.
The Israeli defense body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, said that the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip is expected to increase to around 600 trucks per day, as stipulated in the agreement.
Egypt said it is sending 400 aid trucks into Gaza today. The trucks will have to be inspected by Israeli forces before being allowed in.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid supplies pass through the Rafah border crossing Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare
The third day of the ceasefire saw some aid trucks cross into Gaza, AFP reports, but residents in Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip, said some shipments were being ransacked by starving residents in chaotic scenes.
“We don’t want to live in a jungle. We demand aid be secured and respectfully distributed,” said Mohammed Zarab. “Look at how the food is lying on the ground. Look! People and cars are trampling it.”
For Mahmud al-Muzain, another bystander, the seizure of the aid parcels showed that Gaza did not trust that the US-led negotiations would lead to a long-term peace.
“Everyone fears the war will return. People steal the aid and store it in their homes,” he said. “We stockpile food out of fear and worry that the war will come back.”
Any optimism that 38-year-old Fatima Salem might have felt when Israeli forces withdrew from her neighbourhood in Gaza City was shattered when she returned home to find it gone.
“I returned to Sheikh Radwan with my heart trembling,” she said. “My eyes kept searching for landmarks I had lost – nothing looked the same, even the neighbours’ houses were gone.
“Despite the exhaustion and fear, I felt like I was coming back to my safe place. I missed the smell of my home, even if it’s now just rubble. We will pitch a tent next to it and wait for reconstruction.”
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More than 67,000 Palestinian people have been killed by Israeli attacks since the war began, according to the territory’s health ministry, most of them civilians.
Much of the territory has been reduced to rubble and its infrastructure destroyed by Israeli aerial bombardments.
Only 1.5% of cropland in Gaza has been left able to be farmed, with water and soil left polluted by munitions and fires.
The war is considered by many legal experts as a genocide against the civilian population of Gaza. It is a claim Israel denies, despite the evidence.
Palestinian people make their way past destroyed buildings in Gaza City on 12 October 2025. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 14.02 CEST
Roughly 200 American troops will be sent to help support and monitor the ceasefire deal, according to US officials.
Senior US officials told reporters that 200 troops will initially be on the ground with a “civil-military coordination center” operated by US Central Command to help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid as well as logistical and security assistance into the devastated territory, the Associated Press reported.
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Hamas may start freeing hostages tonight, Israel’s deputy foreign minister says
Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, has suggested to Sky News that Hamas might start freeing hostages as early as tonight. There has been no confirmation of this by Hamas.
Haskel said:
I think they [Hamas] might start even releasing them tonight. So, earlier than expected. We really hope so. We know there’s been immense pressure on Hamas, including the two countries like Qatar and Turkey, who have the means to put pressure on Hamas to release them. And we really hope to see them as quickly as possible.
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