Overview

• Hamas is due by noon Monday to hand over the remaining 48 hostages, including about 20 believed alive, to the Red Cross for transfer to an Israeli military base for medical checks and reunions.
• Israel says it will free roughly 2,000 Palestinians after the handover, including 250 convicted prisoners and about 1,700 detainees held since 2023, with Israel’s published list excluding Marwan Barghouti and other high-profile figures as talks continue over several names.
• Aid deliveries are being scaled up to roughly 600 trucks per day through Rafah and Kerem Shalom, with Egypt dispatching 400 trucks and the UN saying about 170,000 metric tons of supplies are ready, as hundreds of thousands of Gazans return to devastated neighborhoods.
• U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper visited Gaza to prepare logistics and a stabilization task force that will advise from Israel, with no U.S. troops entering the Strip.
• Longer-term issues remain unsettled, with a Hamas source saying the group will not join a transitional Gaza administration and rejecting disarmament, while Israel signals plans to destroy Hamas tunnel networks after hostages are returned.