Israelis congratulate Trump at rally ahead of Hamas release of hostages in Gaza

Hundreds of thousands of people staged a rally in Tel Aviv, ahead of the expected release of Israeli hostages by Hamas.

Addressing the crowd, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said the hostages are “coming home” and praised Donald Trump for making possible a ceasefire in Gaza and an agreement to return the hostages.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials said around 500,000 people had returned to northern Gaza – which is in ruins – over the past two days following the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Meanwhile, Egypt confirmed it would hold a summit on Monday to finalize a deal to end the war.

More than 20 leaders, including Trump, will attend the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, an Egyptian presidential spokesperson said. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will visit Egypt on Monday.

Trump is expected to visit Israel on Monday before heading to Egypt. His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner also spoke Saturday at the Tel Aviv rally.

Three members of Qatar’s highest administrative body, the Amiri Diwan, died in a car accident near Sharm el-Sheikh, the Qatari embassy in Egypt announced on Sunday. Qatar played a mediating role in the Gaza crisis.

As part of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement announced on Thursday, Hamas was given 72 hours – until midday Monday local time (0900 GMT) – to free the 48 hostages it is still holding after two years of war, 20 of whom are presumed to be alive.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told the AFP news agency that “according to the signed agreement, the exchange of prisoners should begin on Monday morning as agreed, and there are no new developments on this matter.”

He said Hamas militants on the ground had not yet briefed the movement’s leaders on the logistics of the handover.

Aviv Havron, whose family members were murdered and others kidnapped during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, told the BBC in Tel Aviv: “It’s so important for the community… that they come back.” Without it, we cannot start our lives again.

“My sisters and two brothers-in-law were murdered. Seven members of my family were kidnapped: my elder sister, her daughter and her grandchildren were kidnapped. Four bodies from Beeri [community] members are still in Gaza. »

Shulamit and David Ginat, who also attended the Tel Aviv rally, told the BBC that all the hostages had to be rescued.

“These are our brothers and sisters. We want to heal again. We want to stop the war, end the pain and heal again,” Shulamit said.

Many in the crowd shouted “Thank you, Trump!” – but he also booed when Witkoff mentioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking immediately afterwards, the couple said they were angry with him for his failure to prevent the October 7 attack, the war and his failure to bring the hostages home sooner.

“He only wants to continue the war because he wants to remain prime minister,” David said.

In Gaza, Hamas has called in thousands of fighters to regain control of areas of Gaza recently evacuated by Israeli troops, according to local sources.

Hamas’ mobilization was widely expected amid growing uncertainty over who will govern Gaza once the war ends and fears of internal violence. Armed clashes were also reported between Hamas and Gaza clans.

Displaced Palestinians continued to move into northern Gaza in large numbers, in many cases arriving to find their homes destroyed.

“There is no more house. Everything is gone,” lawyer Mosa Aldous said by telephone from Gaza City.

Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP she arrived in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City and her house had also disappeared.

“I stood in front of it and cried. All those memories are dust,” she said.

Under the terms of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement, the amount of aid entering Gaza is expected to be increased, but the World Food Program (WFP) told the BBC that an influx of aid trucks had “not yet” entered Gaza, reporting only two to three trucks entering the territory daily.

With full access, the WFP, a United Nations agency, said it intended to restore its regular food distribution system, increasing aid through 145 distribution points across Gaza.

Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing the entry of aid into Gaza, said 500 trucks entered Thursday, of which about 300 were distributed inside Gaza by the U.N. and other organizations.

A recent report from the world’s leading hunger monitoring body, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), estimates that 500,000 people in Gaza – a quarter of the territory’s population – are suffering from starvation.

Israel has repeatedly denied the existence of famine in Gaza, and Netanyahu has said that where hunger existed, it was the fault of humanitarian agencies and Hamas.

Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Israel responded by launching a military offensive that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.