Israelis praise Trump at huge rally ahead of expected hostage release by Hamas in Gaza

Hundreds of thousands of people have held a rally in Tel Aviv, ahead of the expected release of Israeli hostages by Hamas.

Addressing the crowds, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said the hostages “are coming home” and praised Donald Trump for making a Gaza ceasefire and hostage return deal possible.

In Gaza, Palestinian officials said about 500,000 people had returned to northern Gaza – which lies in ruins – in the past two days, following the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Meanwhile Egypt confirmed it would host a summit on Monday to finalise an agreement aimed at ending the war.

More than 20 leaders including Trump would attend the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian presidential spokesperson said. French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are confirmed to be travelling to Egypt on Monday.

Trump is expected to visit Israel on Monday before heading to Egypt. His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner also addressed the Tel Aviv rally on Saturday.

Under the ceasefire and hostage release deal announced on Thursday, Hamas was given 72 hours – until 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Monday – to release all the 48 hostages it is still holding after two years of war, 20 of whom are assumed to be alive.

A top Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told AFP news agency that “according to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed, and there are no new developments on this matter”.

He said Hamas militants on the ground had not yet notified the movement’s leadership about the logistics of the handover.

Aviv Havron, whose family members were murdered and others kidnapped in the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, told the BBC in Tel Aviv: “It’s so important for the community… that they come back. Without this, we can’t restart our lives.

“My sisters and two brothers in law were murdered. Seven of my family members were kidnapped – my older sister was kidnapped, her daughter, her grandchildren. Four bodies of Be’eri [community] members are still in Gaza,.”

Shulamit and David Ginat, who also attended the Tel Aviv rally, told the BBC all the hostages must be saved.

“They’re our brothers and sisters. We want to heal again. We want to stop the war, stop the pain and heal again,” Shulamit said.

Many in the crowd yelled “Thank you, Trump!” – but also booed when Witkoff mentioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking just afterward, the couple said they were angry at him over the failure to prevent the 7 October attack, the war and the failure to bring the hostages home sooner.

“He wants to continue the war only because he wants to stay prime minister,” David said.

In Gaza, Hamas has called up thousands of fighters to reassert control over areas of Gaza recently vacated by Israeli troops, according to local sources.

The Hamas mobilisation had been widely anticipated amid growing uncertainty about who will govern Gaza once the war ends and fears of internal violence. There have also been reports of armed clashes between Hamas and Gaza clans.

Displaced Palestinians have continued to move north in Gaza in large numbers, in many cases arriving to find their homes destroyed.

“There is no house anymore. Everything is gone,” lawyer Mosa Aldous said over the phone from Gaza City.

Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP she reached Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood to find her home also gone.

“I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust,” she said.

Under the terms of the ceasefire and hostage release deal, the amount of aid entering Gaza is due to be scaled up but the World Food Programme (WFP) told the BBC that a surge of aid lorries had “not yet” entered Gaza, reporting only two to three lorries entering the territory daily.

With full access, WFP, a UN agency, said it intended to restore its regular food distribution system, boosting aid through 145 distribution points across Gaza.

Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing the entry of aid into Gaza, said 500 trucks had entered on Thursday of which around 300 were distributed inside Gaza by the UN and other organisations.

A recent report by the world’s leading hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), backed by the UN, estimated that 500,000 people in Gaza – a quarter of the territory’s population – were suffering from famine.

Israel has repeatedly denied that starvation is taking place in Gaza, and Netanyahu has said that where there is hunger, it is the fault of aid agencies and Hamas.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 on southern Israel.

Israel responded by launching a military offensive that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.