Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to the devastated northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, and Hamas announced it would begin releasing Israeli hostages on Monday morning, under the first phase of the peace plan.
• Also read: Gaza: Egypt confirms “Peace Summit” chaired by Trump and Sisi on Monday
• Also read: Gaza Peace Agreement: Hamas absent during signing
While Egypt confirmed Monday afternoon a “Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit” co-chaired by US and Egyptian Presidents Donald Trump and Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and in the presence of leaders from more than 20 countries, the Hamas leader warned against “difficult” negotiations on the next phase of Trump's plan in an interview with AFP.
Hossam Badran, a member of the Hamas politburo, said, in particular, that “there is no question” that the Islamist movement will agree to disarmament.
Before the disarmament phase begins, the agreement calls for the release of the last hostages held in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons by 9 a.m. GMT on Monday.
“According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange should begin on Monday morning as agreed, and there are no new developments on this issue,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdane told AFP.
On Saturday, Israeli authorities said they were assembling detainees in two prisons for release against 48 hostages for whose return all of Israel was preparing.
“We will continue to scream and fight until everyone returns home,” said Einav Zangauker, one of the leaders of the mobilization for the return of prisoners, during a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday. His son, 25-year-old Matan Zangauker, is one of 20 alleged captives still alive.
“You are coming home,” said US envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Gaza earlier in the day along with Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir.
“Destruction, destruction”
In Gaza, Civil Defense, a Hamas-led first aid organization, announced on Saturday that more than 500,000 people displaced by the war had returned to the territory's north after a ceasefire took effect on Friday at 9 a.m. GMT.
Thus, Raja Salmi managed, after a “particularly tiring journey,” to return to his neighborhood of al-Rimal, in the center of Gaza City, where explosions in recent weeks have destroyed what the Israeli army presented as areas that were supposed to shelter thousands of Hamas fighters.
But his apartment has disappeared: the building “is no longer there, it’s just a pile of ruins.”
“I stood in front of (these ruins) and started crying, all my memories turned to dust,” she told AFP.
“I don't know what to say, what I see is stronger than any words… Destruction, destruction and more destruction,” Saher Abu Al-Atta, another resident who returned to the city, told AFP amid the rubble of Al-Rantissi Children's Hospital.
Across the Gaza Strip, rescuers continue to search through the rubble for bodies after Israeli troops retreated beyond agreed lines inside the territory as part of a ceasefire.
The entry into force of the ceasefire marked the beginning of a period of up to 72 hours during which Hamas must hand over the remaining 48 hostages, alive or dead, who were kidnapped in Israel during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
In exchange, Israel must release 250 “security detainees,” including many convicted of deadly anti-Israel attacks, as well as 1,700 Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
Return to war?
While Donald Trump said he was confident the ceasefire would “hold” after the first two failed to hold, Hossam Badran warned on Saturday of “difficult” negotiations going forward.
“The second stage of negotiations requires more complex discussions and will not be as simple as the first stage,” Mr Badran, whose movement will not attend the signing of the ceasefire agreement expected on Monday in Egypt, told AFP.
“We hope not to return (to war), but the Palestinian people and the resistance forces will definitely (…) use all their capabilities to repel aggression if a battle is forced on them,” he added.
“The proposed surrender of weapons is out of the question and not subject to discussion,” a Hamas official told AFP on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump's plan calls for an initial deployment of 200 U.S. troops to Israel to help oversee a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The new head of US military command in the Middle East (Centcom) Brad Cooper, who also visited Gaza on Saturday, said that no US soldiers would be stationed in Palestinian territory.
Instead, the US Army must coordinate the actions of a multinational task force that will be deployed in the Gaza Strip.
