World watches as Trump leads Gaza peace meeting in Egypt

Hamas said it had finished preparations for freeing its remaining living hostages, which Israel expects to take place early on Monday, fulfilling a key step in Donald Trump's Gaza plan hours before he hosts a peace summit in Egypt.

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Under the US president's proposal, once the Palestinian group handed over the hostages, Israel is expected to begin releasing around 2,000 detainees in exchange.

But negotiators were still wrangling on Sunday over the final arrangements, with two Hamas sources telling AFP the group was insisting that Israel include seven senior Palestinian leaders on the list of those to be released.

Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu's office, said the hostage release “will begin early Monday morning”, with Israel “expecting all 20 of our living hostages to be released together at one time”.

Trump is set to arrive in Israel shortly after the expected release, and will address the Israeli parliament before heading to Egypt to host a meeting of world leaders to back his plan to end the two-year-old Gaza war and promote Middle East peace.

“Palestinian prisoners will be released once Israel has confirmation that all of our hostages set to be released tomorrow are across the border into Israel,” Bedrosian said.

During a previous truce, the identification of deceased hostages was only confirmed after autopsies at Israel's Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

Two Hamas sources, meanwhile, told AFP the group was insisting Israel free seven prominent Palestinian figures as part of the exchange -- at least one of whom Israel has previously rejected.