Over 20 world leaders will weigh next steps under Trump’s 20-point plan aimed at securing a lasting peace after two years of an Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, where a ceasefire came into effect on Friday. But the summit was being held too close to the start of Simchat Torah that starts on Monday at sunset.
An Egyptian presidential spokesperson earlier said he would attend.
Hamas freed the last 20 surviving Israeli hostages on Monday under a US-brokered ceasefire deal, a big step towards ending two years of shattering war in Gaza as President Donald Trump proclaimed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East”.
The Israeli military said it had received all hostages confirmed to be alive after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross, prompting cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv.
Buses carrying Palestinians released from Israeli prisons as part of the accord also arrived in Gaza, an official involved in the operation told Reuters.
“The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace,” Trump was due to tell the Knesset in a speech before flying on to Egypt for a summit aimed at building conditions for a lasting peace in Gaza.
However, major obstacles remain even to a lasting resolution of the conflict in Gaza, let alone to the wider Israeli Palestinian conflict or other major schisms running through the long-volatile Middle East.
Also read: Hamas expresses optimism as ceasefire talks with Israel advance
The release of hostages and the freeing of Palestinian detainees form a critical aspect of the first phase of the ceasefire accord concluded last week in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where Monday’s summit will take place.
Over 20 world leaders will weigh next steps under Trump’s 20-point plan aimed at securing a lasting peace after two years of war that began with the October 7, 2023, cross-border Hamas attack that killed around 1,200 people with 251 taken hostage.
Israeli airstrikes, bombardments and armored ground assaults have since devastated Gaza, killing more than 67,000 Palestinians, the enclave’s health officials say, and laying waste to much of the enclave, causing a humanitarian disaster.
Initial photographs of six of the freed Israeli hostages distributed by the Israeli military showed them standing, some smiling and talking with soldiers who were receiving them.
As he flew from Gaza on an Israeli helicopter, released hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal wrote on a whiteboard: “I have returned – the people of Israel live”, according to a photograph shown on Israeli television.
“I am so excited. I am full of happiness. It’s hard to imagine how I feel this moment. I didn’t sleep all night,” said Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, as she travelled to Reim, an Israeli military camp where the hostages were being transferred.
In Gaza, about a dozen masked and black-clad gunmen, apparently members of Hamas’ armed wing, arrived at Nasser Hospital where a stage and chairs had been laid out to welcome returning Palestinian prisoners.
“I hope that these images can be the end to this war. We lost friends and relatives, we lost our houses and our city,” said Emad Abu Joudat, 57, a Palestinian father of six from Gaza City as he watched the handover preparations on his phone.
The Indian Express
