As part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas plans to release 20 prisoners whom Israel believes are alive in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
“According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is scheduled to start on Monday morning as agreed,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview on Saturday.
The Egyptian presidency announced that President Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will chair a summit of more than 20 countries on Monday afternoon in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The meeting aimed to “end the war in the Gaza Strip, strengthen efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of security and stability in the region,” the statement said.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Giorgia Miloni and Pedro Sánchez of Italy and Spain, and French President Emmanuel Macron will also attend.
There is currently no word on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attend, but Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said he would not participate because Hamas “acted primarily through intermediaries in Qatar and Egypt” during the talks.
MNA/