{"id":98145,"date":"2025-10-12T01:14:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T01:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98145"},"modified":"2025-10-12T01:14:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T01:14:32","slug":"israelis-praise-trump-at-huge-rally-ahead-of-expected-hostage-release-by-hamas-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98145","title":{"rendered":"Israelis praise Trump at huge rally ahead of expected hostage release by Hamas in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of thousands of people have held a rally in Tel Aviv, ahead of the expected release of Israeli hostages by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Addressing the crowds, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said the hostages \u201care coming home\u201d and praised Donald Trump for making a Gaza ceasefire and hostage return deal possible.<\/p>\n

In Gaza, Palestinian officials said about 500,000 people had returned to northern Gaza \u2013 which lies in ruins \u2013 in the past two days, following the withdrawal of Israeli troops.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Egypt confirmed it would host a summit on Monday to finalise an agreement aimed at ending the war.<\/p>\n

More than 20 leaders including Trump would attend the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian presidential spokesperson said. French President Emmanuel Macron and\u00a0UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer\u00a0are confirmed to be travelling to Egypt on Monday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Under the ceasefire and hostage release deal announced on Thursday, Hamas was given 72 hours \u2013 until 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Monday \u2013 to release all the 48 hostages it is still holding after two years of war, 20 of whom are assumed to be alive.<\/p>\n

A top Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told AFP news agency that \u201caccording 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Hamas militants on the ground had not yet notified the movement\u2019s leadership about the logistics of the handover.<\/p>\n

Aviv Havron, whose family members were murdered and others kidnapped in the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, told the BBC in Tel Aviv: \u201cIt\u2019s so important for the community\u2026 that they come back. Without this, we can\u2019t restart our lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sisters and two brothers in law were murdered. Seven of my family members were kidnapped \u2013 my older sister was kidnapped, her daughter, her grandchildren. Four bodies of Be\u2019eri [community] members are still in Gaza,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

Shulamit and David Ginat, who also attended the Tel Aviv rally, told the BBC all the hostages must be saved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re our brothers and sisters. We want to heal again. We want to stop the war, stop the pain and heal again,\u201d Shulamit said.<\/p>\n

Many in the crowd yelled \u201cThank you, Trump!\u201d \u2013 but also booed when Witkoff mentioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to continue the war only because he wants to stay prime minister,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Displaced Palestinians have continued to move north in Gaza in large numbers, in many cases arriving to find their homes destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no house anymore. Everything is gone,\u201d lawyer Mosa Aldous said over the phone from Gaza City.<\/p>\n

About 500,000 Palestinians have now returned to Gaza City, the civil defence says<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Raja Salmi, 52, told AFP she reached Gaza City\u2019s Rimal neighbourhood to find her home also gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cnot yet\u201d entered Gaza, reporting only two to three lorries entering the territory daily.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A recent report by the world\u2019s leading hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), backed by the UN, estimated that 500,000 people in Gaza \u2013 a quarter of the territory\u2019s population \u2013 were suffering from famine.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 on southern Israel.<\/p>\n

Israel responded by launching a military offensive that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory\u2019s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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