Twenty live Israeli hostages will be released today after two years in captivity in the Gaza Strip, as part of US President Donald Trump's peace plan to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Israeli authorities expect the live hostages to be released this morning. This could coincide with the US president's visit to Israel. Under the agreement, Hamas has committed to repatriating the bodies of 28 dead Israeli hostages.
The release of the hostages is expected to follow a pattern that has been used repeatedly in previous humanitarian efforts - through representatives of the Red Cross. According to the plan, the Palestinian radicals first hand over the prisoners to the Red Cross, which then delivers them to a meeting with Israeli military personnel in the Gaza Strip.
Israel called this day historic, since the issue of the hostages has been one of the most important and pressing issues on the Israeli socio-political agenda for the past two years.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel must release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, 250 of whom are serving life sentences for terrorism and the murder of Israelis.