President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that both Israel and Hamas had "signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan in Gaza following negotiations in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh. A ceasefire then came into effect on Friday.
Phase one of the deal will see all remaining hostages returned from Gaza, a number of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails and the partial withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces inside the strip.
The Israel Defense Forces is preparing for the transfer and return of the hostages as part of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in the coming morning hours, a security official told ABC News.
Red Cross vehicles were seen in Khan Younis and are expected to pick up Palestinian prisoners that the Israelis will release Monday morning.
Hamas published a list of the 20 living Israeli hostages set to be released around 7 a.m. local time, Monday morning.
The names are:
In his nationally televised address Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he and his wife "met many times with the families of the kidnapped. We saw their pain, their longing, their tears."
"These meetings accompanied me in every decision I made during the war," Netanyahu said. "We hugged the families, and I promised them: 'I will not rest until I bring back your loved ones.'"
"Tomorrow is the beginning of a new path," Netanyahu added, in part. "A path of construction, a path of healing and, I hope, a path of uniting hearts.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday and invited him to attend a planned ceremony in Egypt marking the signing of a Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
“President El-Sisi extended an invitation to President Trump to participate in a ceremony to be held in Egypt to mark concluding the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, considering it a historic agreement that crowns the joint efforts of Egypt, the United States, and the mediators over the past period,” a statement from the Egyptian President’s office after the call said.
Sisi said reaching an agreement was a “historic achievement,” and said Trump “deserves to receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” the statement added.
The date and time of the planned ceremony to sign the ceasefire deal were not immediately clear.
Trump said Thursday that he agreed to speak before the Israeli Knesset.
-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy
