Trump to Host Gaza Peace Summit as Hamas Prepares Hostage Release

Hamas has announced that it has completed preparations to release its remaining living hostages, with Israel expecting the handover to take place today (Monday, October 13) — a key step in U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace initiative, just hours before he convenes a major summit in Egypt.

Under Trump’s proposal, once the hostages are freed, Israel is to release about 2,000 Palestinian detainees in exchange. However, last-minute negotiations continued Sunday, with two Hamas sources telling AFP that the group was pressing Israel to include seven senior Palestinian figures among those to be released.

Shosh Bedrosian, spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, confirmed that “the hostage release will begin early Monday morning,” and that Israel expects “all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time.”

She added that the release of Palestinian prisoners would commence only after Israel had verified that “all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel.”

According to Hamas officials, the group will release a total of 47 hostages — both living and deceased — taken during the October 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, and sparked Israel’s ongoing Gaza campaign. Hamas will also hand over the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in the 2014 Gaza war.

One Hamas source said the group insists that seven high-profile Palestinian leaders be included in the exchange, naming Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat, Ibrahim Hamed, and Abbas Al-Sayyed among them — a demand Israel has previously rejected.

Despite the disputes, the source said Hamas and its allies had “completed all preparations” for the handover.

The list of detainees Israel is set to release reportedly includes 250 security prisoners convicted of killing Israelis and about 1,700 individuals arrested during the Gaza war.

After visiting Israel, President Trump is scheduled to travel to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-chair a Gaza Peace Summit involving leaders from more than 20 nations.

According to the Egyptian presidency, the summit aims “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.”

Attendees will include UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Neither Israeli nor Hamas representatives will be present.

Meanwhile, efforts continue to forge a long-term political settlement that would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, replaced by a U.S.-led multinational peacekeeping force.

A Hamas source close to the negotiation committee said the group “agrees to a long-term truce” but refuses to disarm, stating its weapons “will not be used at all during this period, except in the event of an Israeli attack on Gaza.”

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 67,806 people have been killed since Israel’s campaign began — figures the United Nations considers credible.

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