A Hamas leader said on Saturday that the release of 48 hostages, alive and deceased, mostly Israelis, in Gaza will begin Monday morning.

Osama Hamdan told AFP in an interview that “according to the signed agreement: the prisoner exchange will start Monday morning as agreed, and there is no new update on this matter.”

He added that members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, have not informed the movement’s leadership of any procedural arrangements for handing over the hostages, “including the issue of specifying the location.”

He explained that “so far, things have not been finalized and there are some names Israel is not responding to regarding their release.”

He confirmed that the lists were supposed to be finalized by Saturday evening or Sunday morning.

Rafah Crossing

Hamdan also said that five entry points for aid are expected to open under the agreement, noting that the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen “for individuals in both directions next Wednesday.”

Italy had announced that the Rafah crossing would reopen on Tuesday under the supervision of the European Union Border Assistance Mission with participation from police forces from Italy, Spain, and France.

First Phase Agreement Terms

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas includes the exchange of the remaining 47 hostages in Gaza out of 251 taken during the October 7, 2023 attack, plus the remains of a hostage held since 2014, in exchange for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons by 9:00 GMT Monday, according to AFP.

Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 detainees from Gaza held since the war began.

On Friday, the Israeli Ministry of Justice published a detailed list of the 250 prisoners expected to be released, but the list did not include several prominent Palestinian leaders whose release Hamas has demanded, such as Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Secretary-General Ahmed Saadat, and Hamas leader Hassan Salama.