(MENAFN- Live Mint) Israeli hostages are slated to be released on Monday, 13 October, under the Donald Trump -brokered ceasefire deal that was earlier agreed to between Israel and Hamas.

“We are expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time to the Red Cross and transported among six to eight vehicles,” said the Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian, ahead of Monday's hostage release.

Of the 48 hostages still in Gaza, 20 are believed to be alive.

Once released, the hostages will be driven to a military base to see their families or to hospitals if medical care is needed. The remains of deceased hostages, meanwhile, are expected to be sent to the national Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification, reported The Guardian.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, once the hostages are in Israeli territory, Tel Aviv will release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners currently in detention.

That said, several Hamas commanders, prominent Palestinian political figures, and some detained doctors whose releases were requested by Hamas will not be on the list of detainees to be set free by Israel , and the group is reportedly still in talks with Israeli authorities regarding their release.

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The development comes days after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of Trump's Gaza peace plan, bringing an end to hostilities that were sparked off by the October 7 attack by Hamas two years ago in 2023.

“I think it's going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace,” the US President said at the time, a hope that will be put to the test in the coming weeks.

The first step in US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, Monday's hostage-detainee swap could mark a crucial step towards lasting peace in the war-torn region, with a ceasefire having been effect since Friday.

The swap also comes at a time when the US President himself is flying to Israel to oversee the exchange, something he believes will signal the end of a war that has left the region devastated. He is also slated to co-chair a peace summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh.

Asked by the BBC whether the peace would hold ahead of his trip to Israel, the President seemed confident, saying , "everybody is happy, and I think it's going to stay that way".

"I'm good at solving wars. I'm good at making peace," Trump further said, adding that the region would soon "normalize" with a planned supervisory, dubbed the Board of Peace, to be established "very quickly" to oversee war-torn Gaza.

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