Hamas will begin releasing the Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Monday morning, a top official from Palestinian militant group told AFP, before US President Donald Trump chairs an international summit in Egypt on his peace plan for the region.
As part of the deal's first phase, Hamas, whose deadly attacks on Israel on October 2023 sparked the conflict, will free the captives, 20 of whom the Israel believes are still alive, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
"According to the signed agreement, prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed," Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview.
Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will then chair a summit of more than 20 countries in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, the Egyptian presidency announced.
The meeting will aim "to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability", it said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will attend, as has Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgia Miloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
There was no immediate word on whether Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be there while Hamas said it would not take part as it had "acted principally through Qatari and Egyptian mediators" during talks, Hamas political bureau member said.
Despite the apparent breakthrough, mediators still have the tricky task of securing a longer-term political solution will see Hamas hand in weapons and step aside from governing Gaza.
Badran said the second phase of Trump's plan "contains many complexities and difficulties" while one Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said disarming was "out of question".
Drone footage shot by AFP showed whole the city blocks reduced to a twisted mess of concrete and steel reinforcing wire.
The walls and windows of five-storey apartment blocks had been torn off and now lay choking at roadsides as disconsolate residents poked through the rubble.
UN's humanitarian office says Israel has allowed agencies to start transporting 170,000 tonnes of aid into Gaza if the ceasefire holds.
Israel in Gaza has killed at least 67,682 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead people are women and children.
