The release of hostages held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip is expected to take place early Monday morning, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Sunday.

Israel has told the families of hostages that it expects them to be released between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., but that the timing could change, The Times of Israel learned.

Israel will be informed by the Red Cross two hours before the hostages are to be released.

The country is ready to receive hostages if they are released earlier than Monday morning, PMO spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian also stated on Sunday afternoon. This was after reports said that Hamas had offered to move up the time to Sunday, possibly in exchange for at least two of several high-profile Palestinian life-term terrorists whom Israel refused to set free as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal with the terror group. There was no indication that Israel was accepting this offer.

Hamas is required to release all 48 hostages — 20 living and 28 believed to be dead — by Monday at noon. However, the terror group said it will not be able to locate all the dead hostages within that deadline, and Israel is aware of this. Once Israel confirms it has received all the hostages it is expecting to receive — a likely indication that it knows which slain hostages Hamas is not able to hand over on Monday — it will begin to free Palestinian security prisoners, Bedrosian said.

According to the Qatari Al-Araby channel, Hamas will release the living hostages at several points across the Gaza Strip.

The network also reported that on Monday evening, the terror group will transfer to Israel the bodies of several hostages who were killed.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported early Sunday that Hamas confirmed to Israel via Arab mediators that 20 of the remaining 48 hostages are alive and could be released on Sunday, a day before the terror group’s deadline. An Israeli official cited by the Journal said Israel was ready to receive the hostages Sunday night, though a Monday release was still considered more likely.

There was no official confirmation of the report. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement via his office that “Israel is ready and prepared for the immediate reception of all our hostages.”

Meanwhile, unnamed Israeli officials were cited by Hebrew media confirming that Hamas had conveyed to Israel the potentially accelerated timeline for the hostages’ release. According to the reports, the terror group has signaled it wanted to complete the process before US President Donald Trump’s arrival in Israel, due at 9:20 a.m. on Monday.

“The IDF has completed its preparations for the release of the hostages and assesses that all of them will be released before Trump’s arrival,” said an Israeli official quoted by the Kan public broadcaster.

A separate report by the BBC, which cited a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations, also said Hamas has told mediators it would move up the release of the hostages to Sunday if Israel agrees to free at least two of the seven high-profile Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas.

Those seven prisoners are said to include Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah Tanzim chief serving five life sentences for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada, and Ahmad Sa’adat, leader of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years behind bars for masterminding the 2001 assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

A new round of talks began Sunday morning between Israel and Hamas to resolve outstanding issues related to the list of prisoners to be released under the first phase of Washington’s Gaza ceasefire deal, the BBC report said.

It was unclear what would happen if the terror group’s demands were not met, the report continued, adding that the talks were also focused on the timing and logistics for the release of the 20 living Israeli hostages and the return of the bodies of the deceased hostages that Hamas is able to locate.

Israel has said it believes 20 hostages are alive, harbors grave concerns for the fate of two others, and has confirmed that 26 are dead, including a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war. The other 47 hostages were all among the 251 abducted during the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the current war.

In exchange, Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life terms, 1,722 Gazans, including 22 minors, captured amid the war but uninvolved in the October 7 massacre and the remains of 360 Gazans. Of these 250 life-term prisoners, 115 will return to their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while another 135 will be deported to locations abroad, which could include Gaza.

The prisoners have already been transferred to two detention facilities pending their release.

Similar to the waves of prisoner releases in the previous Gaza ceasefire, which was secured in January and collapsed in March, West Bank-bound prisoners were taken to Ofer Prison north of Jerusalem, while Gaza-bound prisoners and deportees were gathered at Ketziot Prison in the Negev.

Palestinian media reported Sunday that the IDF had begun raiding the West Bank homes of security prisoners set to be released.

Troops reportedly carried out searches and arrests across the West Bank, warning families against hosting receptions celebrating the release of their relatives, outwardly praising terror, or hoisting Palestinian flags upon their return.

The army raided the homes of eight prisoners slated for release in and around Nablus, along with the homes of three prisoners in Hebron and its surrounding area, the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoners’ Media Office said.

Hours ahead of the expected hostage release, President Isaac Herzog told a crowd gathered at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Sunday afternoon that the ceasefire agreement was “painful” in part but represented “a historic moment” that could reshape the Middle East.

“It’s important to say – this agreement is not simple. It will include some very painful elements, and they already are painful,” said Herzog, without elaborating. “But we understand that this is a historic moment that can also provide a genuine horizon of hope and change for the Middle East.”

Israel is “eagerly awaiting” Trump’s arrival, said Herzog. “We want to welcome him among us, to thank him from the bottom of our hearts – him and his team – for their tremendous effort, as well as the mediators and everyone who took part.”

Israel wants the US “to build the next stages [of the deal] so that we will see real change in Israel and the Middle East – in Gaza and everywhere – that will bring us true change and hope,” he added.

Meanwhile, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir is pressing Netanyahu to make last-minute changes to the list of Palestinian prisoners slated for release, Ben Gvir’s spokesman said.

Ben Gvir, who lives in a West Bank settlement, was urging the Prime Minister’s Office to deport several prisoners convicted of murder or attempted murder, rather than releasing them to the West Bank, the spokesman said. The PMO was assessing the request, according to Hebrew outlets.

According to the Walla news site, Ben Gvir believes allowing terror convicts into the West Bank will “spread fear” among Israeli residents of the territory, though defense officials reportedly prefer they stay close by to keep a close eye on them.

Ben Gvir also appeared to endorse a call to resume the fighting in Gaza following the release of the hostages. The minister re-tweeted a social media post by the hawkish Tikva Forum of hostage families demanding a complete conquest of the Gaza Strip.

The post included a video of Tikva Forum co-founder Tzvika Mor saying that while he was happy to see his son Eitan freed in the coming day, he was not satisfied with an agreement which entails the release of “250 vile murderers,” referring to the life-term prisoners slated for release.

“We are now building with our own hands the next Hamas leadership that will try to massacre and murder our children and grandchildren. We repeatedly bring disasters upon ourselves and then we send our children to clean up after us,” Mor said in the video.

Mor, whose forum represents a minority of the hostage families, said that when the last hostage is released, Israel needs to “say we do not make agreements with such enemies, we are destroying Hamas,” and that “every tiny violation will be a pretext for us to enter Gaza and wipe them out.”

He also called for Gazans to be ousted from the Strip and for Israel to reoccupy the enclave — both demands that Ben Gvir has made repeatedly and Netanyahu has rejected. “Only when the Gaza Strip is in our hands will there be peace here,” said Mor.