Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to receive all hostages held in Gaza, ahead of their exchange on Monday for Palestinian prisoners under a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
"Israel is prepared and ready for the immediate reception of all our hostages," Netanyahu said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Israel will not begin releasing Palestinian prisoners set to be freed in exchange for hostages in Gaza until it has confirmation that all captives, both living and dead, have been returned, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister said Sunday.
“The Palestinian prisoners [set to be released in the exchange] will be freed once Israel has confirmation that all our hostages due to be released tomorrow have crossed the border into Israel,” said Shosh Bedrosian.
“Once that confirmation is received, we expect the prisoners will already be on the buses, and as soon as we know the hostages have entered Israeli territory, those buses will depart,” she added.
Israeli authorities expect the release of hostages held in Gaza for over two years to begin “early Monday morning.”
Israel and Hamas have approved the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which has since devastated Gaza.
Under the plan, Hamas must free by Monday noon the remaining 47 hostages (alive or dead) abducted on October 7, along with the body of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza war.
During the last truce, the identities of deceased hostages were confirmed only after autopsies at Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute.
“We expect the 20 remaining live hostages to be released together and handed to the Red Cross, then transported in six to eight vehicles,” Bedrosian detailed.
They will then be taken to “Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza,” where the army withdrew Friday to agreed lines inside the territory under the ceasefire that took effect at 09:00 GMT.
The hostages will next be transferred to the Re’im base in southern Israel to reunite with their families before being moved to “one of three major hospitals.” Ten hostages will be taken to Sheba Hospital (Ramat Gan), five to Beilinson (Petah Tikva), and five to Ichilov (Tel Aviv).
Regarding the remains of deceased hostages, Bedrosian said “an international body, agreed as part of the plan, will help locate any remaining hostages (dead) if they are not found and released tomorrow.”
Among the Palestinians to be freed are 250 “security prisoners,” many convicted of deadly anti-Israeli attacks, as well as 1,700 Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army in Gaza since October 2023.
AFP
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