U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the remaining hostages, whom Hamas holds in Gaza, will be released on Monday or Tuesday under the peace agreement that the terror group signed with Israel.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Trump called the deal a “momentous breakthrough.”
“We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. Getting them is a complicated process,” Trump said. “That’ll be a day of joy.”
Trump said that he would try to attend an official signing ceremony for the agreement in Egypt, but said the exact timing for that meeting still needed to be determined.
One potential complication in the agreement is whether Hamas will be able to retrieve and deliver both the living hostages—thought to number about 20—and the bodies of the approximately 28 hostages who are thought to have been killed in captivity.
“We have the hostages for the most part,” Trump said at the meeting. “The situation with the bodies—they say 28—some are going to be a little bit hard to find, but we’re going to do the best we can.”
Cabinet secretaries applauded Trump for his role in securing the 20-point plan between Hamas and Israel, with Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, hinting that the full story of the negotiations might not be able to be told for years.
“You convened an historic meeting, not simply of Arab countries, but Muslim-majority countries from around the world—Indonesia was there, Pakistan was there—and created this coalition behind this plan,” Rubio said. “Perhaps the stories will be told. Perhaps they will never be told.”
The hostage release deal may face a more contentious reception within the Israeli cabinet later on Thursday. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, stated that he would vote to oppose the deal.
Asked by a reporter if he thought that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government could survive, Trump said he expects the deal to boost Netanyahu’s domestic popularity.
“He’s much more popular today than he was five days ago,” Trump said. “Maybe people shouldn’t run against him. Five days ago, it might not have been a bad idea. Now, Bibi has become—this has been a very good thing—I don’t think he did it for that reason, OK? But I think just looking as an analyst would look at this, I think Bibi should be very popular right now.”
