Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House since President Trump's return to office, in a crucial meeting for the future of the Middle East.
Siegel is the first American to be released as part of this deal. A total of 18 hostages have been released since the ceasefire took effect. Hundreds of Palestinians have been released so far.
Three more Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released by Palestinian militants from captivity and returned to Israel, after being held for more than 15 months in Gaza.
All four hostages are female Israeli soldiers. They are expected to be released Saturday in accordance with a ceasefire agreement with Israel that's halted fighting in the Gaza war since last weekend.
There are men, women and children on the list of 33 to be released from Gaza. Two are U.S. citizens. Israel is set to free hundreds of prisoners in exchange for them.
The president-elect made a similar pledge on social media in early December. His latest comments came during a wide-ranging news conference from Mar-a-Lago.
The deal would secure release of a third of the approximately 100 hostages who remain in Gaza, including two dual U.S.-Israeli nationals. In return, Israel would release some Palestinian prisoners.
Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was taken to a hospital in Israel, where members of his large Bedouin Arab family gathered around his bedside in a joyful reunion.
Families held funerals for six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza. Many in Israel think the next round of cease-fire talks may be the last chance to bring home hostages who remain alive.
The Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages taken to Gaza in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Hamas says some captives have been killed and wounded in Israeli airstrikes.
The three were identified as Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter. Israel's military said they had been killed by Hamas militants when they attacked a music festival on Oct. 7.
Aviva Siegel, 63, was taken hostage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, along with her husband Keith. She was released after 51 days, but he was not. On Saturday, Hamas released a video showing Keith alive.
Hamas has released a video showing two captives, one of them an American, as part of an effort to prove that the two men are still alive. It was the second video of a U.S. citizen released this week.
Snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985, reporter Terry Andersen chronicled his years of imprisonment in a 1993 best-selling book. He died at home in New York on Sunday.
