Israel accuses Hamas of violating deal: Live Updates
World leaders sign Gaza deal after Israel-Hamas prisoner swap: as it happened
(about 2 hours later)
The Red Cross has picked up two sets of remains and will pick up two more later today
Israel has released 250 imprisoned Palestinians after Hamas handed over all 20 living Israeli captives
West Jerusalem has accused Hamas of a “blatant breach” of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, as only four of the 28 bodies of the deceased Israelis are set to be returned today.
The 20 remaining hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel on Monday after two years of war. In return, West Jerusalem released 250 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,700 detainees from Gaza that were held after Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023.
Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning to the Palestinian militant group, saying that “any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a gross violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.”
Emotional scenes unfolded as the freed hostages reunited with their families in hospitals across Israel and as released Palestinian detainees met with their relatives in the West Bank and arrived in buses to large crowds in Gaza.
The IDF has said the Red Cross has notified the military that it has collected two caskets holding the apparent bodies of slain hostages from Hamas in southern Gaza a short while ago.
As part of the agreement, the Palestinian militant group also handed over to the Red Cross four coffins with the remains of deceased hostages. The Israeli organization “Forum for Hostages and Relatives of the Disappeared,” however, called for “an immediate suspension of the agreement” until the remaining 24 bodies of hostages who died in captivity are returned to Israel from Gaza.
The Red Cross is now bringing the caskets to IDF troops inside the enclave, where a small ceremony, led by a military rabbi, will be held. The remains will then be taken for identification.
The return of all hostages, living or dead, by Monday afternoon was the main condition of the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza. The militants, however, claim they did not have enough time to find the bodies of all the deceased hostages.
All of the remaining living hostages in Gaza have been freed from Hamas captivity and are back in Israel after two years of war, but the remains of 28 deceased captives are expected to be returned in separate batches.
Earlier on Monday, US President Donald Trump visited Israel and declared “the historic dawn of the new Middle East” in an address before the Knesset. He told the lawmakers that Israel had no more to achieve on the battlefield and must work toward peace in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, some of the vans carrying Palestinian prisoners who have been released from Israeli prisons arrived a short while ago in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Under an agreement brokered by Trump, Israel is releasing about 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and more than 1,700 who were detained since the beginning of the Gaza war in 2023, including all women and minors.
He delivered the same message to an assembly of other world leaders after signing the Gaza ceasefire deal at a summit in Egypt.
Israel will also allow humanitarian aid into the enclave to ease severe food shortages.
A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive. In Gaza, at least 67,869 people have been killed since then, according to local health authorities.
The 20-point ceasefire plan unveiled by Trump in late September also calls for a phased full Israeli pullout from Gaza, disarming of Hamas, and the creation of a transitional international administration. It envisions Gaza as a “deradicalized terror-free zone” with Hamas barred from governance.
The war between Israel and Hamas began October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages. Israel’s operation in response has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the enclave, prompting the UN to accuse West Jerusalem of genocide.
Global leaders welcomed Trump’s plan and called for rapid implementation, urging both sides to comply with the humanitarian provisions.
