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Donald Trump has confirmed that the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza will be freed next week.
Declaring that his administration ‘ended the war in Gaza’, the US President told his cabinet today that the deal will lead to ‘lasting peace’.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a deal that will see all hostages held in Gaza released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
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If the deal is approved by Israel’s cabinet today, a cease-fire will kick in tomorrow, giving Hamas three days to free the 20 remaining hostages.
Trump said: ‘Last night, we reached a momentous breakthrough in the Middle East, something that people said was never going to be done.
‘We ended the war in Gaza and really, on a much bigger basis, created peace.’
He added that ‘we are getting the hostages back on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday’.
‘Getting them back is a complicated process. I’d rather not tell you what they have to do to get them,’ the Republican leader said.
When the bodies of the believed to be 25 dead hostages will be released depends on whether Hamas is able to find them.
row 2 l-r: Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Omri Miran, Eitan Abraham Mor, Segev Kalfon, Bipin Joshi,
row 3 l-r: Matan Angrest, Evyatar David, Ziv Berman, Alon Ohel, Guy Gilboa-Dalal,
row 4 l-r: David Cunio, Eitan Horn, Avinatan Or, Nimrod Cohen, Ariel Cunio,
row 5 l-r: Matan Zangauker, Bar Abraham Kupershtein (Picture: Reuters)
In the deadly October 7 attack two years ago, Hamas and other militants took about 250 people captive and brought them back to the tiny enclave.
Many of the people kidnapped have been released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails during two cease-fires.
At least eight hostages have been freed by Israeli forces. Israeli soldiers have killed three – mistaking them for Palestinian militants – and killed four others in Israeli airstrikes.
Around three dozen hostages have been killed in captivity, according to The New York Times.
Under the Trump plan, Israel will release 250 Palestinian people serving life sentences as well as 1,700 Gazans who were detained after October 7, 2023.
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More than 10,300 Palestinians were behind bars in Israeli jails as of last December, according to the International Institution for Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners.
Of them, 583 were serving life sentences while 3,600 were held without trial or charge under an Israeli policy called ‘administrative detention’.
The Trump plan adds that for every Israeli hostage released, Israel will release the bodies of 15 dead Gazans.
Aftermath of Israel’s war on Gaza: ‘Two years too long’
A fact sheet shared by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has outlined the effects of Israel’s war on Gaza:
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