12th Oct 2025 13:27
(Alliance News) - Hamas will release its remaining hostages on Monday and will play no role in Gaza's future government, the group told AFP, as US President Donald Trump and other world leaders prepared to convene in Egypt for a major peace summit.
Trump will first pass through Israel, addressing parliament and meeting with hostage families Monday before heading to Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh for the summit, where a "document ending the war in the Gaza Strip" is expected to be signed, according to Cairo's foreign ministry.
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 Meloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The third day of the ceasefire saw some aid trucks cross into Gaza, but residents in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip, said some shipments were being ransacked by starving residents.
For bystander Mahmud al-Muzain, 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 told AFP. "We stockpile food out of fear and worry that the war will come back."
Israelis were looking forward keenly to Monday, when Hamas is expected to release its remaining 48 hostages, living and dead.
Late Saturday, massive crowds gathered in Tel Aviv to support hostage families and cheer Trump's peace envoy Steve Witkoff.
Einav Zangauker, mother of 25-year-old hostage Matan Zangauker, said: "My emotions are immense, there are no words to describe them – for me, for us, for all of Israel."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel was "prepared and ready for the immediate reception of all our hostages".
Militants seized 251 hostages during the October 7 attack on Israel, which led to the deaths of 1,219 people.
Hamas will free the captives, 20 of whom Israel believes are still alive, in exchange for nearly 2,000 prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people.
"According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning," Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview.
After Trump's visit to Israel on Monday, he and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, which aims 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", the Egyptian presidency said.
Hamas and Israel are not expected to take part.
A Hamas source close to the group's negotiating committee told AFP on Sunday that it would not participate in post-war Gaza governance.
"Hamas will not participate at all in the transitional phase, which means it has relinquished control of the Strip, but it remains a fundamental part of the Palestinian fabric," the source said.
But the official pushed back on calls for Hamas to lay down its weapons: "Hamas agrees to a long-term truce, and for its weapons not to be used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza."
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.
source: AFP
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