Israel says won't release prisoners until hostages freed

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Sunday that one of its soldiers was injured after an Israeli drone dropped a grenade near a UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon.

Saturday's "grenade attack" is the third of its kind in recent weeks, UNIFIL said in a statement on X.

"It represents another serious violation of resolution 1701 and concerning disregard for the safety of peacekeepers implementing their mandate from the Security Council," UNIFIL said, referring to the 2006 UN resolution that ended a war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Earlier this month, UNIFIL said multiple grenades dropped by an Israeli drone had landed near peacekeepers who were clearing rubble left over from the war fought last year between Hezbollah and Israel.

In another similar incident last month, UNIFIL said Israeli drones had dropped four grenades near its positions.

Israel acknowledged that incident but said there was no "intentional fire" directed at the UN peacekeepers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the "fight is not over" as he warned that Israel's "enemies" were plotting more attacks.

Netanyahu was speaking during a televised address to Israel on Sunday night, ahead of the planned return of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

He said the "historic" return of the hostages had brought both "tears and joy."

"People didn't believe that it was going to happen," Netanyahu said, adding that he had fulfilled his promise to the families of the hostages when he told them, "I will not remain quiet until I bring them home."

Netanyahu lauded the "amazing victories" won by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), saying that "wherever we fought, we won."

He also praised the "fortitude" of the nation of Israel, but he warned that the conflict was not resolved yet. 

"The campaign has not ended, there are many security challenges ahead of us," he said. "Some of our enemies are trying to rehabilitate themselves in order to attack us again, but we are on it."

US Vice President JD Vance has said the United States will need to apply "consistent leverage and pressure" to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.

Vance made the remarks to US broadcaster CBS on Sunday. The vice president also appeared on Sunday morning shows on ABC and NBC.

He insisted that 200 US troops who are being deployed to Israel would not be involved in combat and would only be monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza.

"That's everything from ensuring that the Israeli troops are at the agreed-upon line, ensuring that Hamas is not attacking innocent Israelis, doing everything that they can to ensure the peace that we've created, actually sustains and endures," Vance told ABC. 

"But the idea that we're going to have troops on the ground in Gaza, in Israel, that is not our intention, that is not our plan," the vice president added.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is prepared to work with US President Donald Trump and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in their bid to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and rebuild the war-torn coastal enclave, a senior official said Sunday.

Under Trump's plan for Gaza, the PA, which partially controls the occupied West Bank and is led by President Mahmoud Abbas, would eventually govern the Gaza Strip, once the PA has completed certain reforms.

The PA used to control Gaza before Hamas took over in 2007.

In a post on X, Hussein al-Sheikh, the deputy head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), said he had met with Blair to discuss the post-war situation in order to make "stopping the war and establishing lasting peace in the region a success."

"We have confirmed our readiness to work with President Trump, Mr. Blair and the partners to consolidate the ceasefire, the entry of aid, the release of hostages and prisoners, and then start with the recovery and reconstruction," al-Sheikh said.

The PA was established in 1993 after the Oslo Accords, which were signed between Israel and the PLO.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said he is firmly opposed to the PA running Gaza.

Amjad Shawa, the head of the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), has described the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where people urgently need shelter, clean water and medical care.

"Everything is a priority," Shawa told DW. "Starting from collecting the bodies which have been for months under the rubble of their homes. In the last few days, hundreds of these bodies have been collected."

Shawa welcomed the entry of commercial aid trucks at border crossings into Gaza. But he stressed that the shipments must go beyond food to include shelter materials, as well as tents, blankets and mattresses as winter approaches. 

"It's cold at night for these children," he said. "They lost their clothes, everything."

He also warned that the water infrastructure in Gaza had been destroyed, leaving only a very limited supply for drinking and daily use. 

According to Shawa, around 82% of health facilities in the Gaza Strip were no longer functioning, and roughly 1,600 medical personnel had been killed, with 360 others detained by Israeli forces.

"Israel engineered this chaos in Gaza," he told DW.

Asked what specific risks returning residents faced, Shawa said many had already been injured by unexploded ordnance left behind in homes and neighborhoods.

"We have already received so many injured cases because of these unexploded devices left by the Israelis ... we've talked with the UN and international organizations to urgently send specialized crews and equipment," he said.

Shawa said bulldozers and other heavy machinery were needed to clear the debris that is blocking Gaza's roads. 

He estimated that 1.5 million Palestinians had lost their homes. Without a coordinated, speedy reconstruction plan, Shawa warned that displacement could last for years.

Israel will not begin releasing Palestinian prisoners and detainees set to be freed under the Gaza hostage exchange until it confirms that all released captives are back in Israel, a spokeswoman for the prime minister said Sunday.

"Palestinian prisoners scheduled for release in the exchange will be freed once Israel has confirmation that all our hostages set to be released tomorrow have crossed the border into Israel," spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said during an online press briefing.

During the last ceasefire, the identities of deceased hostages were confirmed only after forensic examinations at Israel’s national medical institute.

US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza could be released "any moment now," ahead of a Monday deadline under the first phase of a Gaza plan between Israel and Hamas.

"It really should be any moment now," Vance told NBC News, adding that President Donald Trump plans to travel to the Middle East to greet the hostages Monday morning local time.

"You can’t say exactly the moment they will be released, but we have every expectation — that's why the president is going — that he will be greeting the hostages early next week," Vance said.

Trump is expected to visit Israel and Egypt later on Sunday to oversee the first stage of the peace deal his administration helped broker. The ceasefire, which began Friday, set a 72-hour window for the hostages' release, expiring at noon Monday local time.

Pope Leo XIV said the proposed Gaza peace plan, which is set to be signed in Egypt on Monday, has "given a spark of hope in the Holy Land."

At the end of Sunday's Angelus prayer, Leo XIV said he encourages "the parties involved to courageously continue on the path towards a just and lasting peace that respects the legitimate aspirations of the Israeli and Palestinian people."

"Two years of conflict have left death and destruction everywhere, especially in the hearts of those who have brutally lost their children, their parents, their friends, everything", the pope said.

He asked God to help "accomplish what now seems humanly impossible: to rediscover that the other is not an enemy, but a brother to look to, forgive, and offer the hope of reconciliation."

US President Donald Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sissi will chair Monday's summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

World leaders will discuss implementing the first phase of a ceasefire, two years after Hamas'attack on Israel started the war on October 7, 2023.

Israel has freed the last remaining Spanish detainees from flotillas it had blocked while they were carrying aid to Gaza, sending them back to Spain, sources at Spain's foreign ministry said.

Israel has intercepted two flotillas in international waters this month. Activists aboard aid ships hoped to break the IDF's blockade of the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations has declared a famine.

The crews of the vessels were arrested by Israeli forces. This included famous Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and dozens of other pro-Palestinian activists on board.

Israel has been releasing the activists over recent days. Almost 50 other Spanish activists have since returned home.

Many of them complained about mistreatment during their detention. Israeli authorities have denied the allegations.   

US President Donald Trump will visit Israel tomorrow and address Israel's parliament, the Knesset, before traveling on to the peace summit for Gaza in Egypt.

Trump is expected to be welcomed at Ben-Gurion International Airport by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Israeli government's itinerary.

Netanyahu will then hold talks with Trump at the prime minister's parliamentary office, before they meet with families of hostages captured by Hamas and other militants.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will travel to Egypt for the signing ceremony of the Gaza ceasefire plan on Monday, the government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius wrote in a statement.

"Germany will be committed to implementing the peace plan, initially focusing on maintaining a stable ceasefire and providing humanitarian aid. The chancellor is underscoring this commitment with tomorrow's trip," Kornelius added.

Merz will join his French and British counterparts Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer at the much-awaited summit, co-chaired by US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Meanwhile, EU Council President Antonio Costa will represent the European bloc at the signing ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh.

A spokesperson added that Trump's plan "offers a real chance to build a just and sustainable peace, and the EU is fully committed to supporting these efforts and contributing to its implementation."

Israel said it plans to destroy all remaining underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip used by fighters from the Palestinian militant group Hamas during the conflict.

Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the move on the social media platform X.

"Israel's great challenge after the phase of returning the hostages will be the destruction of all of Hamas' terror tunnels in Gaza," Katz wrote, adding that the operation would be carried out directly by the Israeli military under US supervision.

During the two-year Gaza war, the Israeli military repeatedly reported destroying Hamas tunnels, but the extent and the degree of functionality of the remaining underground network is unclear.

Before the Israeli offensive, officials said the tunnels stretched for several hundred kilometers, including beneath urban areas.

Some tunnels allowed access beyond the border fence into Israel, allowing surprise attacks.

Tens of thousands of people joined a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney, Australia, organizers said.

Public broadcaster ABC showed footage of protesters carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyeh scarves, marching on closed city streets.

The Palestine Action Group estimated the crowd at 30,000.

The Sydney protest was just one out of nearly 30 marches held in various Australian cities on Sunday. It went ahead along a modified route after a court blocked the plans to hold the protest at the Sydney Opera House.

An umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations in Australia criticized the protest organizers.

"They want the [peace] deal to fail, which would mean the war would continue," co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said in a statement, referring to the US 20-point plan to end the Gaza war.

Egypt will host an international peace summit for Gaza at its Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.

The even will include a signing ceremony on the Gaza agreement. 

However, there was no immediate word on whether Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be there.

Hamas said it would not take part as it had "acted principally through... Qatari and Egyptian mediators" during talks, Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran told AFP news agency.

The meeting is to be co-chaired by US President Donald Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said, along with the participation of leaders of more than 20 countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres are set to attend, along with the heads of several Arab countries.

Egypt has also invited German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to the summit, as well Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez.

Hamas said that the 48 mostly Israeli hostages — including some 20 that are still alive — held captive in Gaza would start being delivered to Israelis on Monday, AFP news agency reported.

"According 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," Osama Hamdan, a top official from the Palestinian militant group, said in an interview with AFP. 

Hamdan said militants on the ground have yet to inform Hamas' leadership about the logistics of the release.

Israel and the United States also said the hostage release was expected to take place on Monday.