Hamas releases 7 Israeli hostages as part of Gaza peace deal

Hamas released seven Israeli hostages on Monday morning as part of the Gaza peace deal brokered by the Trump administration. Why it matters: The Israeli hostages, most of them civilians, were held in captivity in Gaza for more than two years. Their release was a key Israeli and U.S. demand for ending the war.The hostage release started shortly before President Trump landed in Israel, as part of a Middle East trip aimed at cementing his Gaza peace plan. Driving the news: Hamas had to release all 20 of the live hostages by Monday at noon local time, according to the agreement.Eventually, the first group of seven hostages was released shortly after 8am local time. The hostages were transferred by Hamas to the Red Cross, which will deliver them to Israeli forces inside Gaza.The other 13 hostages are expected to be released at 10am local time. The hostages will be taken to a military base outside the Gaza Strip to be reunited with their families, and from there to hospitals in Israel to receive medical treatment.All the live hostages spent most of the past two years in underground tunnels, with very little food and water and almost no medical care for the wounds they suffered during Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks. Israeli officials are concerned that many of them may be in very poor health.Zoom in: As part of the agreement, Hamas must also retrieve the bodies of 28 deceased hostages, among them two Americans: Itay Chen and Omer Neutra.Hamas claimed during the negotiations that it doesn't know the exact locations of all the bodies of the dead hostages. In some cases, the group says, the militants guarding them were killed, or the bodies were buried under rubble. As part of the peace deal, a multinational task force has been established in order to share information on the possible locations of the deceased hostages and to conduct search operations inside Gaza. Meanwhile, in return for the release of the hostages, Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails — all but two dozen of the Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel.In addition, Israel will release 1,700 Palestinians who were detained by the IDF in Gaza after Oct. 7.Israel refused to release Hamas militants who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks and also to release a dozen Palestinian prisoners it sees as symbols, like Hamas military leader Ibrahim Hamed and Marwan Barghouti, the former Fatah leader in the West Bank.

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