The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has handed over the first seven Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel’s Channel 12 reported, marking the start of the group’s release of Israeli captives on Monday.
13 Israeli hostages will be released at 07:00 GMT from central Gaza, according to the report.
A Red Cross convoy was on its way to pick up a first batch of Israeli captives to be freed by Hamas, the Israeli military said.
Earlier in the day, Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced that they have decided to release 20 Israeli prisoners alive as part of a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.
The group released the names of prisoners, which are Elkana Bohbot, Matan Angrest, Avinatan Or, Yosef-Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Evyatar Davud, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Rom Braslavski and twins Gali and Ziv Berman, Eitan Mor, Segev Kalfon, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Bar Kupershtein, Omri Miran, and brothers David Cunio and Ariel Cunio.
According to Israeli media, the release of the captives will be conducted in two phases.
The second phase will take place at 10.00 am local time (0700 GMT) from the Khan Younis area and the central Gaza refugee camps.
As Israelis on Monday prepare to welcome home the last 20 living captives from devastated Gaza, in the key exchange of the breakthrough ceasefire after two years of Tel Aviv’s brutal war on the Palestinian enclave, the Palestinians await the release of hundreds of people held by Israel.
The development comes hours before a peace summit on a Gaza ceasefire that will be held in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheikh, which will be co-chaired by US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi.
More than 20 world leaders are expected to attend the summit, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
