Hamas says it is ready to release hostages as Israel clears humanitarian aid

BarcelonaHamas has said it is ready to release the Israeli hostages. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Islamist group has reportedly announced that it is ready to hand over all twenty live hostages to Israel this Sunday. Inside the Strip, devastated by Israeli bombs after two years of genocidal war, there are still 48 hostages: an estimated 20 are alive and 18 dead. As part of the Trump-sponsored peace agreement, the return of the Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners is one of the key points of the first phase of the plan, along with the ceasefire that has already come into effect. US President Donald Trump had said that the release of the hostages would take place on Monday, but this statement by Hamas suggests it could be brought forward and begin this Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately reacted. "Israel is ready to immediately receive all of our hostages," he said.

It was already estimated that of the 48 hostages still in the Gaza Strip, 20 were still alive. Now Hamas has confirmed this. In any case, according to the plan, all must be released by Monday at noon. The bodies of the deceased must also be returned to Israel, although Hamas has warned that in some cases the deadline may not be met, as bodies must be recovered whose whereabouts are unknown. The peace plan stipulates that within the next three days, all those held by Hamas or other Palestinian factions must be returned, and that the Islamist group must share all information it has on those it has not been able to return within that timeframe.

Once the hostages are freed, Israel will release 250 Palestinians serving sentences in Israeli prisons and 1,700 people detained in Gaza during the war, and the bodies of 360 Palestinians will also be returned. According to the agreement, the exchanges will take place "without any public ceremony or media coverage."

Humanitarian aid enters the Gaza Strip

Meanwhile, and also as part of the peace plan, the humanitarian blockade on Gaza has ended. Hundreds of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid began entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt this Sunday. In the Rafah area, there is a long line of vehicles waiting to enter Palestine through the Kerem Shalom and Awja border crossings, controlled by Israel. According to the Egyptian television channel Al Qahera News, some 400 trucks loaded with various types of aid are expected to enter Gaza throughout the day.

The outlet also emphasizes that this is "the largest amount of aid entering the Palestinian enclave since the beginning of the crisis." In addition to the vehicles transporting food and medical supplies, several fuel tankers have been seen in the Rafah area, preparing to head towards the border crossings, according to EFE.

The agreement reached last Wednesday in Egypt establishes that Israel will allow the daily entry of 600 trucks operated by the UN, authorized international organizations, the private sector, and donor countries.

For the past two years of conflict, Palestinians in Gaza have lived under a strict siege imposed by Israel, which kept the Strip's border crossings closed, blocking the entry of food and medical supplies. This situation, combined with massacres at food distribution points, has led to at least 400 people dying from malnutrition in the Strip, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) in early October.