Prisoner exchange is getting closer. Donald Trump's envoys were in the Gaza Strip [RELACJA]
The war in the Gaza Strip is a brutal and long-lasting armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas, which has intensified particularly after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have been conducting an intensive military operation that has led to massive civilian losses, destruction of infrastructure and a deepening of the humanitarian crisis. This conflict has deep political, religious and historical roots.
Previous information regarding the Gaza Strip you will find here.
Prisoner exchange is getting closer
After the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip came into force on Friday at 12, the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are to begin implementing subsequent points of US President Donald Trump's peace plan. All Israeli hostages imprisoned in the Gaza Strip are to be released within 72 hours of the ceasefire. Hamas should release 20 kidnapped people alive and release the bodies of 28 killed hostages.
The article continues below the video
Israeli authorities said on Saturday that the Israeli penitentiary service was preparing Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
“The prisoners (…) were transferred to deportation centers in Ofer prisons (on the occupied West Bank) and Ktziot (in the south of Israel) pending instructions from the political authorities and further continuation of activities aimed at enabling the return of the hostages to Israel,” the statement said.
Donald Trump's special envoys were in the Gaza Strip
In turn, the Israeli army reported that special envoys of the US president, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, visited the Gaza Strip on Saturday. They were accompanied by the commander of the US Regional Command (CENTCOM), Admiral Bradley Cooper.
CENTCOM is to help organize a joint task force that will include 200 American soldiers, as well as soldiers from Qatar and Egypt, and probably from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
According to AFP, both of Trump's special envoys were also scheduled to participate in a demonstration in Tel Aviv organized by the families of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of Palestinians are returning to the devastated areas of the Gaza Strip
Al Jazeera reported on Saturday that tens of thousands of Palestinians who were forcibly displaced have been returning to the devastated areas in the northern Gaza Strip for several hours.
“Al-Rashid Street in the Gaza Strip, which has seen massive population movements north and south in recent months as Palestinians fled Israeli attacks, is once again witnessing a wave of human migration,” writes Al Jazeera.
After a ceasefire was introduced and Israeli forces withdrew from the so-called Netzarim Corridor, tens of thousands of Palestinians are heading north with the hope of staying there permanently.
Macron will travel to Egypt to celebrate the entry into force of the Israel-Hamas agreement
French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Egypt on Monday to show his support for the entry into force of the agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the war in the Gaza Strip, the Élysée Palace said on Saturday.
Macron is planning meetings during which the next stages of the plan concluded with the mediation of US President Donald Trump will be discussed.
The statement did not specify whether Macron would meet Trump, who will also be in Egypt. Earlier, the US president is scheduled to visit Israel.
Hamas member on prisoner exchange with Israel. He confirmed the date
After the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip came into force on Friday at 12, the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are to begin implementing subsequent points of US President Donald Trump's peace plan. All Israeli hostages imprisoned in the Gaza Strip are to be released within 72 hours of the ceasefire. Hamas should release 20 kidnapped people alive and release the bodies of 28 killed hostages.
One of the leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization admitted in a television interview that an exchange of prisoners and hostages with Israel could begin on Monday. He added that the group does not intend to publicly celebrate this element of the agreement, Turkish Anadolu Agency reported.
Meanwhile, as Al-Jazeera reports, “Palestinians in Gaza experienced a night they had not experienced in two years, a night without the sounds of Israeli drones and explosions.”
Palestinians in the destroyed Khan YunusPAP/EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
US troops have begun arriving in Israel to establish a coordination center that will oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, ABC News reported on Saturday, citing officials familiar with the matter.
US soldiers will not enter the Gaza Strip, the sources added. According to one official, the 200 soldiers being sent to Israel specialize in transportation, planning, logistics, security and engineering. They will cooperate with representatives of other partner countries, the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
The team monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza will also include military officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and probably the United Arab Emirates.
The coordination center is seen as a first step in supporting a peace process that will require extensive humanitarian, logistical and security coordination, the ABC noted. Soldiers being sent to Israel to set up the center will arrive over the weekend. Various units fly there from the US and bases in the Middle East.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees U.S. troops in the region as commander of U.S. Central Command based in Tampa, Florida, arrived in Israel on Friday, the American station reported.
Donald Trump: I will go to Israel and then to Egypt
US President Donald Trump announced his visit to the Middle East. As he said, he will first go to Israel, where he will speak at the Knesset, and then he will fly to Egypt. In Cairo, Trump plans a summit of world leaders on the Gaza peace plan. Trump said he would return to the US before Tuesday evening. According to him, Hamas will release the Israeli hostages on Monday.
Donald TrumpPAP/EPA/SHAWN THEW/POOL
“The hostages are coming back on Monday,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He noted that 28 bodies of hostages were also to be returned. “Some of these bodies are being pulled out of the ground right now as we speak,” he added.
When asked if he was confident that the ceasefire in Gaza would last, the president replied: “Yes, I think it will last, they are all tired of the fighting.”
On Thursday, Trump said he planned to travel to the Middle East on Sunday. According to Axios, the president will arrive in Israel on Monday morning and in the afternoon he will go to Egypt, where the peace agreement signing ceremony will be attended by representatives of the countries that are its guarantors: Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. The leaders' summit is likely to be held on Tuesday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israeli attack on a Hezbollah facility in Lebanon
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that overnight it carried out an “attack on Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon.” Lebanese media quoted by AFP reported that Israeli planes carried out several raids on a point selling heavy machinery, including bulldozers and excavators. According to Israeli forces, the facility contained “machinery used by Hezbollah to rebuild terrorist infrastructure, in violation of the agreements between Israel and Lebanon.”
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least one person died and seven were injured.
Due to the bombings, the highway connecting Beirut, the country's capital, with the southern part of Lebanon was briefly cut off.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Saturday condemned the nightly raids on “civilian facilities” in the south of the country. According to him, “the seriousness of this aggression is that it occurred after the conclusion of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.”
There were also reports that a Palestinian was killed in an attack on the West Bank town of Dura.
