Israel expects all living hostages to be released by Hamas within hours - bringing to an end horrifying ordeals that included starvation, torture and being forced to dig their own graves.
It is believed they will all be released at the same time and transported to the Red Cross in six to eight vehicles, after being held captive for 737 days.
Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: 'Israel is ready... if a living hostage requires any urgent medical attention, they will be brought to a medical facility immediately.'
In a speech to Israelis earlier, Netanyahu spoke of the hostages' return tomorrow and a new 'path of healing' ahead.
Israel and Hamas are said to be locked in last-minute negotiations over the release of Palestinian detainees.
Today's disputes have revolved around requests to free senior Hamas commanders as well as Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian prisoner, amid the US-brokered peace deal to end the war in Gaza.
Donald Trump, who pushed to clinch the ceasefire deal, is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday morning. He will meet with families of hostages and speak at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, according to a schedule released by the White House.
He will then continue to Egypt, where the office of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said he will co-chair a 'peace summit' attended by regional and international leaders.
Ms Bedrosian told reporters today the deceased hostages would be placed in coffins, which will be draped with the Israeli flag, before being taken to a forensic institute for identification.
A convoy of ambulances is being readied to meet the living captives with Soroka and Barzilai hospitals in southern Israel being placed on standby.
Ms Bedrosian said: 'Israel is prepared and is ready to immediately receive all of our hostages.
'The release of our hostages will begin early Monday morning. We are expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time to the Red Cross and transported among six to eight vehicles without any sick displays by Hamas, the terror organisation.
This screengrab from a video released on August 1, 2025 by the armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas, shows Israeli hostage Evyatar David looking weak and malnourished
Shosh Bedrosian (pictured), a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said they expect the hostages to be released on Monday morning
A placard shows an image of slain hostage Idan Shtivi as people gather at 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, October 12, 2025
'The hostages will then be driven to forces inside of Israeli controlled parts of Gaza and then transferred to the Re'im base in southern Israel, where they will then reunite with their families.'
The family of Israeli hostage Segev Kalfon packed a bag with clothes, toiletries and a Jewish prayer book in their Dimona home on Sunday ahead of his upcoming release.
He is one of 20 hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and believed to be alive. Twenty-six others are believed to be dead and the fate of two others is unknown.
Among the other captives has been Evyatar David, who was kidnapped from the Nova festival in southern Israel with his best friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal.
Both 24-year-olds spent their first weeks of captivity bound hand and foot with bags over their heads, blood dripping from their wounded limbs.
The last sign of life had come in February, when Hamas cruelly filmed them watching other hostages released, and then returned them to the tunnels - with the militant group releasing harrowing footage in August this year.
His mother Galia David told the Daily Mail: 'I want everyone in the world to see this image, to know what Hamas terrorists are doing.'
Among the most sinister aspects of hostage testimony already revealed has been details of sexual violence, including rape, forced nudity, and day-to-day humiliation.
Women such as Amit Soussana and Ilana Gritzewwsky have been the main victims - though Hamas has been found to not discriminate when it comes to the routine degradation of the hostages, and men testified to suffering sexual violence in captivity too.
Trucks carrying fuel enter Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing and reach Deir al-Balah following a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, on October 12, 2025
A large crowd gathers for the first aid trucks arriving in Khan Yunis
Attendees listen to a concert at a plaza in Israeli city Tel Aviv on October 12, 2025
Evyatar David is among the Israeli hostages kidnapped in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas
His mother Galia David told the Daily Mail of images released of him by Hamas in August: 'I want everyone in the world to see this image, to know what Hamas terrorists are doing'
Pictured is Segev Kalton, an Israeli hostage seized in Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023
Also taken that day was Maxim Herkin (pictured)
Other captives have included Elkana Bohbot (pictured)
Hamas also took hostage Bar Abraham Kupershtein (pictured)
Such treatment is part of the terror group's wider 'genocidal strategy', according to an all-women group of Israeli legal experts, who argue that Hamas used rape and sexual humiliation during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and after, to inflict the ultimate damage on the nation.
On that Saturday - the single deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust - armed militants stormed the border and engaged in gang rape and genital mutilation, often tying up naked victims to trees and executing most of them afterwards by gunfire. Some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were slaughtered.
The sexual violence only continued for some of the 250 hostages who spent hundreds of days trapped in the Strip's underground fortress, where Israeli women were threatened with forced marriage and even forced pregnancy by the militants who had murdered their families.
The lawyers of the Dinah Project - an independent group which operates from the Rackman Centre at Bar-Ilan University - are battling to bring the sex attackers to justice, after claiming the world turned a blind eye to the depths of Hamas's depraved crimes.
And now a message sent on Saturday from Gal Hirsch, Israel's co-ordinator, told hostage families to prepare for the release of their loved ones starting Monday morning. One of the families of the hostages confirmed the note's authenticity.
Mr Hirsch said preparations in hospitals and in Re'im camp were complete to receive the live hostages, while the dead will be transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification.
An international taskforce will start working to locate deceased hostages who are not returned within the 72-hour period, said Mr Hirsch. Officials have said the search for the bodies of the dead, some of whom may be buried under rubble, could take time.
Timing has not yet been announced for the release of some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel who are to be freed under the deal.
Amit Soussana, a former hostage, speaks to the press near her house where she was kidnapped during the October 7 attack on the kibbutz, on January 29, 2024, in Kfar Aza, Israel
Ilana Gritzewsky is comforted after speaking about her experiences as a hostage during a discussion with the House Foreign Affairs Committee on February 12, 2025 in Washington
Pictured is Muhammad Al-Atarash, an Israeli hostage captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023
Fellow Israeli national Avinatan Or (pictured) was also taken captive that day
Others seized on October 7, 2023 by militant group Hamas included Alon Ohel (pictured)
They include 250 people serving life sentences in addition to 1,700 people seized from Gaza during the war and held without charge.
US Vice President JD Vance today told NBC News' 'Meet The Press' that the hostages could be released 'any moment now'.
'The president of the United States is planning to travel to the Middle East to greet the hostages Monday morning, Middle Eastern Time,' Vance continued.
Trump is expected to fly to leave the White House around 3.30pm today and fly to Tel Aviv, Israel. After meeting with hostages and their families, Trump will deliver remarks and then fly to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for a summit to finalize the peace agreement.
'Which should be late, you know, Sunday night, or very early Monday morning here in the United States.'
Although he said the release is coming soon, Vance said it remains unclear 'exactly' when they will be set free but there is an 'expectation.'
It comes as preparations are under way for a ramp-up of aid entering the Gaza Strip under a ceasefire deal many hope will signal an end to the devastating two-year war.
The Israeli defence body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, said the volume entering Gaza is likely to now increase to around 600 trucks per day, as stipulated in the agreement.
Egypt said it is sending 400 trucks carrying aid into Gaza on Sunday. The trucks will have to be inspected by Israeli forces before being allowed in.
Associated Press footage showed dozens of trucks crossing the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. The Egyptian Red Crescent said the trucks include medical supplies, tents, blankets, food and fuel.
Hostage Noa Argamani was taken into Gaza from the Nova Music Festival on October 7
Released hostage Ilana Gritzewsky poses for a portrait in her apartment in Kiryat Gat, Israel, on December 15, 2024, with photos of her boyfriend, Matan Zangauker, who is still being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip
A woman looks at messages that have been left for the hostages to read upon their release and when they return to Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, October 11, 2025
One of the messages left for the hostages read: 'Welcome home. I'm so sorry Israel left you there so long. God bless'
In recent months, the UN and its partners have been able to deliver only 20 per cent of the aid needed in Gaza because of the fighting, border closures and Israeli restrictions on what enters.
Expanding Israeli offensives and restrictions on humanitarian aid have triggered a hunger crisis, including famine in parts of the territory.
The UN has said it has about 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid ready to enter Gaza once Israel gives the green light.
Abeer Etifa, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, said workers are clearing and repairing roads inside Gaza on Sunday to facilitate delivery.
Who are the Israeli hostages?
Twenty living Israeli hostages are due for release from captivity in Gaza under a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Militants kidnapped them during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country's history.
Hostages thought to be alive:
Avinatan Or, 32
Dual British-Israeli national Avinatan Or hails from a religious Jewish family of seven children from the Shilo settlement in the occupied West Bank.
His partner Noa Argamani was abducted with him at Supernova, though she was freed in an Israeli military operation in June 2024.
He was planning to move in with her in Beersheva, where he studied engineering.
Gali and Ziv Berman, 28
The Berman twins were abducted in the youth area of the Kfar Aza kibbutz along with their British-Israeli neighbour, Emily Damari, who has since been released. The trio are pictured together at a festival.
The inseparable brothers worked together in musical production. They support the Maccabi Tel Aviv and Liverpool football clubs. Their parents and their older brother survived the attack.
Matan Zangauker, 25
Matan Zangauker was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz kibbutz with his Israeli-Mexican girlfriend Ilana Gritzewsky.
She was released in November 2023, during the first truce in the two-year war.
Along with Einav Zangauker, Matan's mother, Gritzewsky became a key figure in the campaign for the hostages.
Ariel Cunio, 28
Ariel Cunio was abducted in the attack on October 7.
His partner, Arbel Yehud, was freed in January 2025 under a deal that saw Hamas hand over 25 living and eight dead hostages amid a temporary ceasefire.
David Cunio, 35,
Ariel's brother David was also kidnapped from Nir Oz. David's wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their twin daughters Ema and Yuly, then three, were among the 105 hostages released during a short ceasefire in November 2023
Matan Angrest, 22
Matan Angrest, a 22-year-old IDF soldier, was in a tank that was targeted near the Gaza perimeter fence on October 7.
This year, his family said they had been informed by released hostages that he was suffering chronic asthma, infections and untreated burns.
Nimrod Cohen, 21
Nimrod Cohen was working as an IDF soldier when his tank was targeted by Hamas at Nahal Oz.
Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli hostage who was kidnapped in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas
Omri Miran, 48
Omri Miran was taken from his home in Nahal Oz. His wife, Lishay, claimed she last saw her husband being driven away in his own car.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24
Guye Gilboa-Dalal had attended the festival with his brother, Gal, before his abduction.
Alon Ohel, 24
Hamas footage showed Alon Ohel being taken away as a hostage from the Nova festival in October 2023.
Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25
Yosef-Chaim had attended the festival with a friend, who said they had stayed at the scene to help people escape the gunfire before fleeing themselves.
Elkana Bohbot, 36
Elkana was working at the Nova festival when he was abducted.
Eitan Mor, 25
Eitan Mor was a security guard at the festival. His father said his son saved dozens of people before being taken away by Hamas gunmen.
Eitan Mor was a security guard at the festival, who reportedly saved dozens of people before his abduction
Maxim Herkin, 37
Maxim attended the festival, and his two friends were among the 378 people killed in the attack.
Bar Kupershtein, 23
Bar was a member of staff at the festival and stayed behind during the attack to help treat those in need. He was later identified in a clip of hostages.
Segev Kalfon, 27
Segev was fleeing the festival with his friend when he was abducted by Hamas gunmen.
Evyatar David, 24
In August 2025, Hamas posted a clip of a weak Evyatar in a tunnel. The footage caused outrage in Israel and deep fear among the victim's family.
Rom Braslabski, 21
Rom was a security member at the festival. He was reportedly trying to help an injured person in the attack when he was caught up in the chaos.
Eitan Horn, 38
Eitan was kidnapped with his brother Yair from Nir Oz. Yair was freed in February 2025 during a ceasefire.
