A fragile Gaza ceasefire is tested after Israel and Hamas swap detainees and hostages

Israel and Hamas took steps toward ending the two-year war that has devastated the Gaza Strip and sent shockwaves through the Middle East with an exchange of hostages and detainees, but a "peace summit" co-chaired by President Trump on Monday indicated that even harder work lies ahead.

The ceasefire was largely holding but in a sign of its fragility, Hamas on Tuesday accused Israel of breaking the truce. Gaza's Health Ministry said at least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in northern and central Gaza. The Israeli military said it had opened fire on people it considered a threat who were approaching the line of control in Gaza.

In a further complication, Israel's Army Radio said Israel was considering delaying the reopening of the crucial Rafah crossing with Egypt to bring aid into Gaza until Hamas handed over the bodies of all 24 hostages killed while in captivity. NPR could not immediately confirm the report.

Four bodies were handed over on Monday, including a Nepalese citizen. Hamas has said it will take time to find all the remains, some of them buried under rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

Israel on Monday celebrated the return of the 20 living hostages held by Hamas since the group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians welcomed back about 1,700 Gazans detained by Israel and held incommunicado and without charge.

Thousands of Israelis, many of them cheering and crying, gathered in a public square to watch live footage of the men handed over by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Israeli custody. They were taken to Israeli hospitals, where medical staff said the freed hostages were in relatively good health but had been starved in captivity and lost significant body weight. Some of their families told Israeli media the hostages had been held shackled in chains in isolation or underground tunnels.

A woman reacts as people celebrate at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, as news came out that a convoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross was on its way to pick up a second group of Israeli hostages to be freed by Hamas on Monday.

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In Khan Younis in central Gaza, Palestinian detainees wearing gray tracksuits stepped off ICRC buses, some so emaciated that waiting relatives did not initially recognize them. The freed detainees — who'd been held under an Israeli law that did not afford them rights of prisoners of war — included two women and 15 children, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, an organization that represents current and former prisoners.

Israel also released more than 240 prisoners, almost all from the occupied West Bank, and forced 154 of them into exile by deporting them initially to Egypt, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club. Israeli authorities warned families of the Palestinian prisoners who were allowed to return to the West Bank not to celebrate or speak with the media. Some of those freed in the exchange included Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences after convictions for killing Israelis.

People gather to greet freed Palestinian prisoners as they arrive in the Gaza Strip after their release from Israeli jails under a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday.

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Israel refused to release some of the most high-profile prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti, who is seen as a potential unifying Palestinian leader. Israel is also still holding some Gaza doctors and other medical staff taken during raids on hospitals in the enclave.

In an hourlong address to Israel's parliament, the Knesset, President Trump basked in applause for his unwavering support for Israel and for brokering the ceasefire and hostage release deal. Two lawmakers who disrupted his speech calling for recognition for Palestinians were quickly ejected from the chamber.

A woman waves a flag made of the U.S. and Israeli flags as she watches President Trump address the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on a giant screen in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday.

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"Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms," Trump told parliament members. "Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East."

From Israel he flew to the Egyptian Red Sea resort area of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he co-hosted with the Egyptian president what was billed as a "peace summit."

The mostly ceremonial meeting included leaders of nearly 30 countries and United Nations organizations, as well as figures in the Trump orbit, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, his son-in-law, businessman Jared Kushner and the head of the international soccer federation FIFA, Gianni Infantino.

Trump said he considered the attendees friends, although he admitted, "a few of them I don't like at all."

"The momentum now is toward a great, glorious and lasting peace," he said, predicting that other Arab countries would normalize relations with Israel. Public rage in Arab countries as well as other parts of the world over Gaza put a halt to that process.

A U.N. commission of inquiry has called Israel's actions in Gaza genocide and Netanyahu is facing charges from the International Criminal Court. Israel has strongly denied allegations of genocide and rejected the charges against Netanyahu.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attended the summit in Egypt, but Netanyahu declined Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi's invitation, saying he was unable to go because of the Jewish holidays.

Egypt's Sisi said the region has a "last chance" for peace and reiterated his call for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Trump's plan leaves open the possibility of a Palestinian state after a lengthy transition period and reform process by the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu and other senior Israeli leaders have vowed never to allow the creation of a Palestinian state.

The meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh was meant to throw support behind the next phases of the ceasefire agreement, which many hope will lead to a permanent end to the war. The war has killed at least 67,869 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It followed the Hamas-led attack in Israel two years ago that killed 1,144 people, according to the Israeli government.

The more immediate issues are whether Hamas will disarm and who will govern the Palestinian enclave. Further ahead is the issue of Palestinian statehood, which most Arab states believe is essential for stability in the region.

President Trump in his remarks in Sharm el-Sheikh referred to a demilitarized Gaza. But he has given the green light for now for Hamas to direct police functions.

The Israeli military on Friday pulled back under the terms of the ceasefire but still controls more than half of Gaza territory, including most of the southern city of Rafah, Gaza's far north and the entire border with Israel.

The U.S.-brokered plan calls for an international body to govern the territory, overseeing Palestinian technocrats vetted by Israel. Hamas says Palestinians should decide who governs their people.

It also calls for an Arab-led peacekeeping force in Gaza along with Palestinian police.

The agreement obligates Israel to allow in aid it has restricted for most of the past two years, leading to what leading food security experts say is famine in parts of the territory. U.N. agencies say they have hundreds of trucks per day positioned to move into Gaza with aid once Israel allows it.

The World Health Organization said over 15,600 patients urgently need medical evacuation in Gaza and noted it needed to scale up treatment for malnutrition. It said more than 15,000 Palestinians have had limbs amputated due to war injuries. With winter coming, hundreds of thousands of tents will be needed for temporary shelter.

Trump echoed relief officials in noting that Gaza will need to be almost entirely reconstructed.

The World Bank in February estimated it would take $53 billion in reconstruction funds. Israeli attacks have severely damaged or destroyed most infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, water treatment and electricity plants.

Although it is unclear who will pay for or oversee reconstruction, President Trump — who in the past has suggested clearing Gaza's coast of Palestinians to allow international investors to buy beachfront property — referred in his remarks at the summit to wealthy nations.

"Numerous countries of great wealth and power and dignity have come forward to me just today and over the last week to say they want to help in the reconstruction of Gaza, putting up whatever money is necessary," he said.

Jane Arraf reported from Amman, Jordan, and Daniel Estrin reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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