Hamas has told Israel it has 20 living Israeli hostages in hand and is ready to begin releasing them as early as Sunday, people familiar with the matter said.
The message, which the militant group sent through Arab mediators, marked the first time Hamas has confirmed that it has 20 living Israeli captives .
It also addresses the uncertainty around whether Hamas would be able to assemble all the living hostages quickly in its battered and fragmented state and points to a possibly accelerated timetable for their release.
“Israel is prepared and ready for the immediate reception of all of our hostages,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday afternoon.
Israel’s military is preparing to receive the hostages as early as Sunday night, though it still expects the handover is more likely to happen Monday, when President Trump is slated to visit Israel and Egypt, an Israeli official said.
Under the agreement brokered by President Trump and sealed just ahead of the weekend, Hamas is to release all of the hostages it holds. Israel had believed that as many as 20 hostages remained alive in Gaza, along with the bodies of roughly 28 others.
Hamas told mediators and Israel that it doesn’t know the location of some deceased hostages and that it will struggle to meet the Trump plan’s 72-hour deadline to deliver them. Israel’s intelligence services also believe the group doesn’t know where all of the bodies are, and Israel has acknowledged it will likely take more time for the bodies to be collected.
A joint multinational task force is being established to locate the bodies of Israeli hostages whose locations are unknown, the people said. It will include Turkey, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, they said.
Also on Sunday, a large influx of humanitarian aid was being prepared to enter the Gaza Strip as part of the cease-fire agreement. The Egyptian Red Crescent said it dispatched 400 trucks loaded with more than 9,000 tons of humanitarian aid slated to cross into Gaza on Sunday. The aid includes food baskets, flour, fuel and medical and relief supplies, such as tents, blankets and mobile bathrooms.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that Israel was going to insist that its military be allowed to destroy what’s left of Hamas’s extensive tunnel system underneath the Gaza Strip once the hostages are returned. Katz called the endeavor “the greatest challenge” for Israel going forward after the release of the hostages. He added that the Israeli military would work in conjunction with a U.S.-led international mechanism for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Israel has only destroyed around 30%-40% of the hundreds-of-miles-long tunnel system underneath Gaza, according to Israeli and Arab officials. Any attempt by Israel to destroy the rest of the subterranean infrastructure would be a highly contentious issue going forward as it would lead to even more destruction in Gaza.
