Israel moves prisoners ahead of Gaza deal exchange
Israel has begun transferring prisoners to two jails ahead of their release as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, designed to lead to the release of hostages held by Hamas, the prison service said on Saturday.
Thousands of staff, including prison officers, “operated throughout the night in order to implement the government’s decision: ‘The framework for the release of all Israeli hostages’,” a statement said, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed from Israeli jails, including 250 serving long sentences for serious security offences. In exchange, Hamas has until Monday to hand over its 48 remaining Israeli hostages – living and dead.
Key events
The World Cup qualifier between Norway and Israel in Oslo on Saturday was marked by protests and a heavy security response including the use of tear gas, with Norwegian fans divided over Israel’s participation in the tournament due to the war in Gaza.
Ahead of the game, hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters gathered to protest outside the Norwegian parliament, with many wearing the jerseys of the Palestine national team.
Marching towards Ullevaal Stadium with Palestinian flags and flares, the protesters gathered outside, vowing to continue until kickoff as nearby buildings displayed pro-Palestinian banners hanging from balconies. Security was tight around the stadium, with police closing several entrances hours before the match started, conducting bag searches, and reducing the number of spectators allowed in.
Later, Norwegian police confirmed they had used tear gas on a group of protesters who attempted to breach the barricades surrounding the stadium as the match was being played, according to Reuters.
Here is a photo of the document laying out the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, obtained by the Associated Press. It is titled “Comprehensive End of Gaza War”.
Witkoff handed the microphone to Jared Kushner, who said he “couldn’t be prouder to be a friend of Israel”. He then called for lasting peace in the Middle East, and thanked the crowd for their efforts to bring the hostages home.
Next to take the microphone was Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife and Donald Trump’s daughter, who drew huge cheers upon the mention of her father’s name.
“God bless you all for standing in solidarity together through this dark chapter,” she said.
The trio then left the stage as the repeated cheers of “Thank you, Trump” rang out from the crowd.
Witkoff said Israeli hostages held in Gaza were coming home, in a message directed at the captives during the rally.
“To the hostages themselves: you are coming home,” Witkoff said, prompting applause and cheers from thousands gathered at the Tel Aviv plaza known as Hostages Square.
Addressing the families of the hostages, he added: “Your courage has moved the world.”
Crowds have gathered for what could be the last rally in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where Israelis have rallied in the thousands on Saturday night as they anticipate the release of captives held in Gaza.
Special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told the massive crowd that he had “dreamed of this night”.
“We stand here tonight, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and people from every corner of the world, united by one shared prayer, for peace,” he told the crowd.
The mention of Trump’s name also drew loud cheers from the crowd, while the mention of Netanyahu was met with boos.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visit Gaza Strip, according to Israeli military
The Israeli military said that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited the Gaza Strip on Saturday, as a ceasefire announced by Israel entered its second day.
Israel’s army chief lieutenant general Eyal Zamir conducted a field tour in Gaza with “US envoy to the Middle East, Mr Steven ’Steve’ Witkoff, Mr Jared Kushner, and the Commander of the United States Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper”, the Israeli military said in a statement.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulates Donald Trump on Gaza ceasefire
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has congratulated Donald Trump on the Gaza ceasefire, according to an Axios correspondent.
“Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on achieving the agreement to end the war in Gaza and expressed hope that now it will also be possible to end the war with Russia,” Barak Ravid reported on X.
The war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, is a conflict that Trump has faced particular difficulty trying to end. The US president has openly voiced his frustration with both Moscow and Kyiv on several occasions at the failure to reach a peaceful agreement in the region.
Emmanuel Macron to travel to Egypt Monday for peace plan talks with Trump
French president Emmanuel Macron will travel to Egypt on Monday for talks on implementing a peace plan presented by Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza, the Elysee Palace said on Saturday.
The plan, brokered by Trump along with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, aims to establish a permanent ceasefire, secure the release of all hostages and restore full humanitarian access to Gaza, the president said.
Macron will meet regional partners to discuss the next steps in carrying out the agreement. He will also reaffirm France’s commitment to a two-state solution as the basis for lasting peace, security and reconstruction in the region, the Elysee said.
More than 500,000 people return to Gaza City after ceasefire takes effect
Gaza’s civil defence agency on Saturday said more than 500,000 people had returned to Gaza City since a ceasefire took effect the previous day.
“More than half a million people have returned to Gaza [City] since yesterday,” Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the civil defence, a rescue service operating under Hamas authority, told Agence France-Presse.
Summary of the day so far
It is 6pm in Gaza and Israel. Here is a summary of the main developments covered on the blog so far today:
Israel has begun transferring prisoners to two jails ahead of their release as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, designed to lead to the release of hostages held by Hamas, the prison service said on Saturday. Thousands of staff, including prison officers, “operated throughout the night in order to implement the government’s decision: ‘The framework for the release of all Israeli hostages’,” a statement said.
Israel is expected to release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving long sentences for serious security offences, in exchange for the remaining hostages in Gaza. A list Israel published on Friday did not include high-profile prisoner Marwan Barghouti. Netanyahu’s office has confirmed it refuses to release Barghouti.
The hostage and prisoner releases are expected to begin on Monday, two Egyptian officials briefed on the talks and a Hamas official said, although another official said they could occur as early as Sunday night. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to be publicly named speaking about the negotiations, reported the Associated Press (AP).
Hamas’s disarmament as part of US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is “out of the question”, a Hamas official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday. “The proposed weapons handover is out of the question and not negotiable,” the official said. The US president has indicated the issue of Hamas surrendering its weapons would be addressed in the second phase of the peace plan.
Trump has said that “for the most part, there is consensus” on how the next stages of how the Gaza ceasefire plan will work, but admitted that “some of the details … will be worked out”. In comments made on Friday, and reported by various news outlets, Trump spoke about the remaining hostages in Gaza, adding that Hamas were gathering them “now”. He said: “they’re in some pretty rough places”.
The head of the US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday he visited Gaza to discuss post-conflict stabilisation and insisted no US troops will be deployed there. Adm Brad Cooper wrote on X that he had just returned from a trip to Gaza to discuss the creation of a Centcom-led “civil-military coordination centre” which will “support conflict stabilisation”.
However, about 200 US troops have arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire. The US military will coordinate a multinational taskforce which will deploy in Gaza and is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their Gaza neighbourhoods on Saturday, weaving through dust-shrouded streets as bulldozers clawed through the wreckage of two years of war and a ceasefire held in its second day.
Aid groups are preparing to scale up relief work, with Doctors Without Borders, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) stating that they are ready to step up aid shipments. Trucks carrrying boxes of WFP aid were seen on Saturday arriving in Khan Younis and being distributed among Palestinians. A UN official speaking to the AP on the condition of anonymity said the UN had been given the green light by Israel to begin delivering scaled-up aid into Gaza starting on Sunday.
Unicef and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely. Speaking from central Gaza, Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram said: “A ceasefire alone is not enough … it also needs to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.”
Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid, said that more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, although many crossings remain closed. With a declared famine still under way in parts of the strip, Unicef has 1,300 trucks ready to enter, with more on the way, Ingram said.
Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Egypt to attend an international summit on Gaza on Monday, their respective governments have confirmed. Trump has previously said he plans to meet “a lot of leaders” in Cairo on Monday to discuss the future of Gaza. Representatives from a range of countries, including the UK, Germany, France and Qatar, are expected to be in attendance.
Gaza’s civil defence agency has said it recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect, while 9,500 are still missing. It added that 300,000 people have arrived in Gaza City since the truce began.
Officials in Gaza have said that 5,000 public operations have been carried out since the ceasefire came into effect on Friday, including efforts to restore water and sewage infrastructure, as well as secure damaged buildings. About 1,200 medical and healthcare operations were conducted, such as treating the wounded and monitoring those injured, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Gaza government media office.
Protesters flooded the streets of central London to march in support of Palestine on Saturday. Tens of thousands of demonstrators attended the march, organised by the Palestine Coalition, which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War and other groups.
International journalists in Israel have called for reporters to be granted immediate access to Gaza after the rapidly negotiated ceasefire came into effect, joining a long list of international media organisations demanding press freedom in the devastated territory. In a statement released on Friday, the Foreign Press Association (FPA) urged Israel to “immediately open the borders and allow international media free and independent access to the Gaza Strip” now that hostilities have ceased.
Lebanese president Joseph Aoun condemned Israel on Saturday for carrying out overnight strikes on civilian facilities that the health ministry said killed at least one person. The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on the al-Msayleh area left one person dead and seven others injured.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan will meet Syrian officials, in Ankara on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry said. Defence minister Yasar Guler, intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, and their Syrian counterparts will attend the security cooperation meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Hamas official says disarmament as part of Trump’s Gaza plan is ‘out of the question’
Hamas’s disarmament as part of US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza is “out of the question”, a Hamas official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday.
“The proposed weapons handover is out of the question and not negotiable,” the official said.
The US president has indicated the issue of Hamas surrendering its weapons would be addressed in the second phase of the peace plan.
Kyriakos Petrakos
In response to a query by the Guardian on Unicef’s plans to scale up its aid operation as a result of the Gaza ceasefire, a spokesperson for UN agency said on Saturday:
We expect the ceasefire will allow us to scale up significantly from tomorrow [Sunday]. Unicef has more than 1,300 trucks stationed at points around the Gaza Strip, ready to bring in tents, nutrition supplies, medical supplies and more.
The ceasefire must, finally, afford humanitarian actors the opportunity to safely roll out the massive response inside the Gaza Strip that is so desperately needed. This includes unimpeded access to reach all children and families with essential food and nutrition, health care and psychosocial support, clean water, and sanitation, education, and learning, as well as cash assistance and the resumption of commercial trucking operations.
Unicef has been bringing trucks in consistently for months and continue to do so, including this past week. In recent days, Unicef brought in hygiene kits, baby diapers and tents.
From tomorrow [Sunday], we expect to collect supplies for children with disabilities, tents, hygiene kits, water tanks, RUTF [ready-to-use therapeutic food], menstrual hygiene supplies, winter clothes, plastic tarps and diapers.
As the scale-up comes into effect, we will be prioritising nutrition supplies to fight the famine, items for the production of safe drinking water and other urgent water and sanitation needs, as well as supplies to help families cope with the impending winter.
Israel moves prisoners ahead of Gaza deal exchange
Israel has begun transferring prisoners to two jails ahead of their release as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, designed to lead to the release of hostages held by Hamas, the prison service said on Saturday.
Thousands of staff, including prison officers, “operated throughout the night in order to implement the government’s decision: ‘The framework for the release of all Israeli hostages’,” a statement said, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
About 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are to be freed from Israeli jails, including 250 serving long sentences for serious security offences. In exchange, Hamas has until Monday to hand over its 48 remaining Israeli hostages – living and dead.
Images on the newswires show aid arriving via trucks in Gaza today:
Taking advantage of the ceasefire, Raja Salmi walked back to her home in Gaza City, where weeks of Israeli bombardment and ground operations had destroyed entire neighbourhoods, said to harbour thousands of Hamas fighters.
“We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” Salmi told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
When she reached the al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house destroyed. “It no longer exists. It’s just a pile of rubble,” she said, adding:
I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust.
At al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza City, a facility for children and cancer patients, AFP footage showed wards reduced to heaps of overturned metal beds, gaping ceilings and scattered medical equipment.
“I don’t know what to say. The images speak louder than any words: destruction, destruction, and more destruction,” said Saher Abu al-Atta, a resident who had returned to the city.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan will meet Syrian officials, in Ankara on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry said.
Defence minister Yasar Guler, intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, and their Syrian counterparts will attend the security cooperation meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Security cooperation between Turkey and Syria will be discussed, it added.
Fidan urged Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Wednesday to abandon their “separatist agenda”, a day after the group’s leader and Syria’s government announced a ceasefire.
