Gaza (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – On Monday, Hamas handed over all twenty living hostages still held in the Gaza Strip as U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Israel, where he will deliver a speech at the Knesset before a summit in Sharm El-Sheikh focused on Gaza.

The Red Cross received a second batch of 13 hostages after receiving an initial group of seven in the morning, according to the Israeli army.

Cheers erupted among crowds gathered at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv upon the announcement of the hostages’ release.

Roni Edri, a 54-year-old teacher, told AFP, “We were waiting for this moment, but we still feel sorrow for those who will not return and for the nearly two thousand war dead. Two years of madness end. But it is a beautiful day we’ve been waiting for two years.”

Since last night, crowds have occupied Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where large screens were set up and pictures of the hostages were raised to follow the release operations.

Emotion overwhelmed those gathered in the square, while the Hostages Families Forum affirmed that “the struggle is not over” after the release of the seven.

In the first phase of the U.S. president’s ceasefire plan in Gaza, the return of the hostages to Israel coincides with the release by the Israeli state of 250 Palestinian “security” detainees and 1,700 others arrested in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023.

On Sunday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the fourth day of the ceasefire, said the return of the hostages was a “historic event” mixing “sorrow” with “joy.”

Israeli authorities indicated that not all bodies of deceased hostages might be handed over on Monday. Netanyahu’s spokeswoman Shosh Badressian confirmed that in such cases, “an internationally agreed body under the plan will assist in locating the (deceased) hostages if they are not found and handed over.”

“The War Is Over”

Informed sources said Hamas still demands the release of senior Palestinian leaders detained by Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel confirmed that Palestinian detainees transferred to two specific prisons will only be released after the identity of the returning hostages is confirmed.

President Trump arrived at the Israeli Knesset on Monday to deliver a speech after his plane landed at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.

Trump wrote in the parliament’s honor book, standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “It is a great honor for me, a great day, a wonderful day. A new beginning.”

He will later meet with relatives of hostages.

Trump told reporters as he left the United States, “The war is over, okay? Do you understand that?” expressing confidence that the ceasefire “will hold.”

Netanyahu said Israel had achieved “huge victories, victories that stunned the world. But the battle is not over.”

Sharm El-Sheikh Summit

After his brief visit to Israel, Trump will head to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt to co-chair a summit for “peace” in Gaza with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, attended by leaders from more than 20 countries and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Upon arrival in Sharm El-Sheikh, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Hamas’s start of releasing the living Israeli hostages, saying “peace has become possible for Israel, Gaza, and the region.”

The governance of the Gaza Strip, devastated by the ongoing two-year war, will be a key topic at the summit.

Macron confirmed that France will have a “special role” in governing Gaza in the future alongside the Palestinian Authority, noting that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will participate in the Sharm El-Sheikh summit.

The countries that mediated the ceasefire will sign a document ensuring its implementation, according to a diplomatic source who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. The signatories will be the guarantor parties: the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and possibly Turkey, after the Egyptian Foreign Ministry earlier indicated that a document to end the Gaza war will be signed during the summit co-chaired by the U.S. and Egypt.

No Israeli or Hamas officials will participate in the summit. Iran, a major supporter of Hamas, was invited but will not attend.

Under Trump’s plan, Israel will gradually withdraw its forces from Gaza cities, to be replaced by a multinational force including troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, coordinated by a command center under U.S. supervision in Israel. Hamas will be excluded from governing the Strip and disarmed.

The government will be entrusted under the U.S. plan to a “technocratic and non-political Palestinian committee” placed “under the supervision and control of a new international transitional authority” headed by Trump.