US President Donald Trump will be able to meet with hostages who are about to be released in the Gaza Strip as early as next week, according to Washington, US Vice President J.D. Vance said.
“We can't say exactly when they will be released, but we have every reason to believe that he [Trump] will be able to meet the hostages early next week, which is why the president is heading there“, he said in an interview with NBC News.
On October 12, Israeli government spokesman Shosh Bedrosian announced that the release of hostages held by radicals as part of the Gaza deal would begin early on the morning of the 13th October.
On October 9, Trump announced that representatives of Israel and Hamas had reached agreements on the first phase of his proposed peace plan, which provides for the release of all hostages held in the Gaza Strip and the withdrawal of Israeli troops to the agreed positions. Immediately after this statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump and invited him to address the Knesset.
On the night of October 10, Netanyahu's office announced that the government had approved the agreement to release all hostages. The ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip entered into force on October 10 at 12:00 Moscow time, and Israeli troops “took up positions along the updated deployment lines“, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman officially announced the same day. According to Bedrosian, the ceasefire opens a “72-hour window“ during which the hostages should be returned home.