GENEVA

Italy will help ensure that the "two peoples, two states" project for peace between Israelis and Palestinians "does not remain an empty slogan," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday, following the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza.

"The first Israeli hostages have left their prisons in Gaza," Tajani said through the US social media company X, calling it "another glimmer of hope" in the Middle East after "two years of horror."

He described the ceasefire and hostage release as “another step forward on a still fragile path, the transition from war to peace.”

Tajani acknowledged that “everything is still very uncertain,” stressing that “the task that falls to all of us, the governments and peoples of Europe together with our friends in the Arab world, is to consolidate and build, day after day, the conditions for peace to endure and strengthen.”

He added that Italy “will work with loyalty and conviction so that the two peoples can find peace in respect and security.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Monday morning the start of the process of releasing Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire agreement.

The Palestinian group Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, concluded on Monday the release of 20 living Israeli hostages, according to an Anadolu correspondent. The hostages were handed over to Red Cross teams in two groups in the Gaza Strip.

The release of Palestinian prisoners has also begun, as the buses have left Israeli prisons for Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office reported.

Trump announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his 20-point plan aimed at implementing a ceasefire in Gaza. The plan includes the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. The first phase took effect on Friday.

Phase two of the plan envisions the creation of a new governing body in Gaza, excluding Hamas, the deployment of a multinational force, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.