What to know as Israel and Hamas exchange hostages and prisoners and Trump visits the Middle East

In a critical day for the Middle East, Hamas released the 20 living Israeli hostages it still held and Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under a breakthrough Gaza ceasefire deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration brokered the deal, made a whirlwind visit to the region, first to Israel where he addressed the parliament to repeated applause. He landed Monday afternoon in Egypt for the “Summit of Peace” where world leaders are to discuss the ceasefire plan.

More ramped-up aid was being readied for Gaza, much of which is in ruins after two years of war that began when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages. In Israel’s ensuing offensive, more than 67,600 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

What we know and what remains unknown:

Monday was day 738 since the hostages were taken, a number many Israelis have updated daily on strips of adhesive tape worn in a national commemoration.

Twenty living hostages were returned Monday to Israel to be reunited with their families and then transferred to hospitals, the Israeli military said.

Hamas first released seven and then 13 hostages. Israel meanwhile said it had freed over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners under the truce agreement. The ceasefire in the two-year Israel-Hamas war is the first phase of a plan brokered by the Trump administration.

Hamas said it will deliver on Monday four of the 28 remains of Israelis it holds in Gaza. It appeared unlikely that the other remains will be returned by the end of the day. Medical experts and advocates say that would be crucial to begin the healing process for many families, and for the Israeli society at large.

One ceasefire document contains stipulations for remains that aren’t returned within 72 hours of the end of the fighting — a deadline that expired around noon Monday. On Sunday, Israel said “an international body” will help locate the remains if they are not released on Monday.

Buses carrying dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners arrived Monday in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Prisoners Office said.

They were the first to be released of about 1,700 people that troops seized from Gaza during the war and have held without charge, as well as about 250 Palestinians serving prison sentences. At least 154 of the Palestinians had been deported to Egypt from the West Bank as per stipulations in the deal.

Many are members of Hamas and the Fatah faction who were imprisoned over shootings, bombings or other attacks that killed or attempted to kill Israelis, as well as others convicted on lesser charges. They’ll return to the West Bank or Gaza, or be deported elsewhere.

Humanitarian organizations have said they’re preparing to surge aid into the Gaza Strip, especially food that’s been in short supply in many areas.

That included some 400 trucks from Egypt on Sunday that will have to undergo Israeli inspection before being distributed in the strip. The Israeli defense body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza said around 600 trucks of aid per day will be entering soon, under the ceasefire agreement.

The world’s leading authority on food crises said in August that the Gaza Strip's largest city was gripped by a famine that was likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said famine was devastating Gaza City — home to hundreds of thousands of people. That famine was expected to spread south to the cities of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by around now if the situation did not change.

The larger task of rebuilding Gaza is daunting, as much of it is in rubble and most of its two million residents displaced.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog greeted Trump, first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, as well as adviser Steve Witkoff, a key envoy.

Trump met with families of hostages and spoke at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, which welcomed him as a hero with standing ovations and chants of his name.

“Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change,” Trump told lawmakers in his the speech. “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”

Afterwards, Trump flew to Egypt, where he was briefly escorted by Egyptian warplanes before touching down Monday afternoon in Sharm el-Sheikh. At the resort town on the Red Sea, he was set to co-host with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi a summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the broader Middle East.

The ceasefire and release of hostages is the first step in the plan proposed by Trump. Competing demands remain on the next steps, casting uncertainty on whether the conflict is indeed over.

Israel wants Hamas to disarm, and Hamas wants Israel to pull its troops out of all of Gaza. The future of Gaza’s government, which has been in Hamas’ hands for two decades, also remains to be worked out.

Gaza's Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of the 67,600 in Gaza deaths were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Egyptian Red Crecent members monitor trucks carrying humanitarian aids as they enter the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, following an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

Egyptian Red Crecent members monitor a truck carrying humanitarian aids as it enters the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, following an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

Mourners carry the body of the Palestinian Mohammed Salama, 25, who was killed in an Israeli military raid, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Attendees listen to a concert at a plaza known as hostages square, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Displaced Palestinians ride on a van loaded with their belongings amid rubble in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a pause in their war and the release of the remaining hostages. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Egyptian Red Crecent members monitor trucks carrying humanitarian aid as they enter the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, following an agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — World leaders warned Thursday that time is running short for urgent and decisive action to prevent the worst effects of climate change, and blasted the United States for its retreat from those efforts, as they gathered at the edge of Brazil's Amazon rainforest for the annual United Nations climate summit.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres opened a gathering of heads of state in Belem, Brazil, with harsh words for world powers who he said “remain captive to the fossil fuel interests, rather than protecting the public interest.”

Allowing global warming to exceed the key benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), laid out in the Paris Agreement, would represent a “moral failure and deadly negligence,” Guterres said, warning that "even a temporary overshoot will have dramatic consequences ... every fraction of a degree higher means more hunger, displacement and loss.”

Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sought to mobilize funds from world powers to halt the ongoing destruction of tropical rainforests and advance the many unmet promises made at previous summits.

But reduced participation — with only half the heads of state in attendance as there were at last year's summit — showcased global divisions and set a somber tone. The leaders of the planet’s three biggest polluters, China, the United States and India, were completely absent from the preliminary gathering ahead of climate talks that begin next week at the Conference of Parties, known as COP30.

In a rousing speech, Lula warned that the “window of opportunity we have to act is rapidly closing and said there was “no greater symbol of the environmental cause” than the Amazon rainforest.

Known as the “lungs of the world” for its capacity to absorb vast quantities of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet, the biodiverse Amazon rainforest has been choked by wildfires and cleared by cattle ranching. Some 17% of the Amazon’s forest cover has vanished in the past 50 years, swallowed up for farmland, logging and mining.

“It is only right that it is the turn of the Amazonian people to ask what the rest of the world is doing to prevent the collapse of their home,” Lula said.

Leaders spoke in Belem as the U.N. weather agency announced that 2025 was on track to be the second or third warmest year ever recorded. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which hit a record high last year, continued to rise in 2025, as did ocean heat and sea levels, said the World Meteorological Organization reported on Thursday.

U.S. President DonaldTrump, who calls climate change a hoax and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords the day he entered office, did not send any senior officials to Belem. Even U.S. lawmakers struggled to get to Brazil as U.S. airlines canceled hundreds of flights due to the government shutdown.

There are concerns that the absence of the U.S. — which has at times played a key role in convincing China to restrain carbon emissions and securing finance for poor countries — could signal a broader rollblack of climate politics.

“Extremist forces fabricate falsehoods to gain electoral advantage and trap future generations in an outdated model that perpetuates social and economic disparities and environmental degradation,” Lula said, without naming Trump.

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, however, called out Trump directly, saying his absence was “100% wrong.”

“Trump is against humankind,” said Petro, whose feud with his U.S. counterpart escalated in recent weeks as Trump accused him of being a drug kingpin and imposed financial sanctions on him and his family.

“We can see the collapse that can happen if the U.S. does not decarbonize its economy,” he said.

Chile’s left-wing President Gabriel Boric similarly singled out Trump, saying his claims that “the climate crisis does not exist ... is a lie.”

Indigenous groups also warned that Trump’s inaction could embolden other countries to ignore the crisis.

“It pushes governments further toward denial and deregulation,” said Nadino Kalapucha, the spokesperson for the Amazonian Kichwa Indigenous group in Ecuador. “That trickles down to us, to Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, where environmental protection is already under pressure.”

President Javier Milei of Argentina, who threatened to quit the Paris Agreement and last year pulled Argentine negotiators out the climate summit in Azerbaijan, also boycotted this week’s meeting.

That left leaders like U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron to confront not only the consequences of an intensifying global climate crisis but a daunting set of political challenges a decade after the Paris Agreement promised a new era of global cooperation.

“Today, sadly, that consensus is gone, with some arguing that this isn’t the time to act and saying that tackling climate change can wait,” Starmer said in his address.

Some experts, though, saw a silver lining in the Trump administration’s absence, saying it reduced the risk of the U.S. foiling an ambitious agreement that requires a full consensus.

“Even if the U.S. plays an outsized role, it is one country and there are over 190 nations coming to COP, many of which are willing to stand up to the destructive tactics of the fossil fuel industry,” said Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Lula, who has presented himself as a champion of climate diplomacy in the Global South and won widespread praise for reducing deforestation in the Amazon, seeks to leverage Brazil's moment on the world stage to push for action on curbing planet-warming emissions and helping poor nations adapt to the perils of climate change.

But Lula’s commitment has run into economic pressures.

He recently granted state oil firm Petrobras a license to explore oil near the mouth of the Amazon River, which environmental advocates say risks damaging oil spills. Lula has hit back at accusations of hypocrisy.

“I don’t want to be an environmental leader,” Lula said Tuesday. “I never claimed to be.”

Those tensions are at the heart of the conference and Lula's centerpiece proposal — a new fund called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility that would pay 74 developing countries to keep their trees standing, using loans from wealthier nations and commercial investors.

The conference will test whether Brazil can drum up enough money to make its ambitions a reality. Existing U.N. funds for climate loss and damage have drawn only modest contributions.

Brazil's government on Thursday announced $5.5 billion in pledges to the fund from Norway, Indonesia and a few other countries. It remained unclear whether major world powers would follow suit.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org

An indigenous man takes part in a demonstration in defense of the Amazon during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva, center, Minister of Climate and the Environment of Norway Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, left, and Brazil's Economy Minister Fernando Haddad hold a press conference during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Paulo Santos)

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during a roundtable with leaders of tropical forest countries and nations committed to investing in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and France President Emmanuel Macron pose for photos after meeting during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses a plenary session of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres listens to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's speech at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses a plenary session of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Britain's Prince William, left, and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, attend a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses a plenary session of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, right, and Brazil Environment Minister Marina Silva attend a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Indigenous people hold hands during a demonstration in defense of the Amazon during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Indigenous people and activists take part in a demonstration in defense of the Amazon during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrives to attend a plenary session at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando LLano)

A boat moves through Guajara Bay ahead of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Oxfam activists wear puppet heads in the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump, left, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, center, and President of Argentina Javier Milei as they protest ahead of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belem, Para state, Brazil, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Ships arrive to accommodate participants at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, at the port of Outeiro in Belem, Para state, Brazil, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva harvests acai during a meeting with descendants of slaves in a settlement in Itacoa Miri, Combu island, Belem, Para state, Brazil, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, ahead of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A woman walks past a sign for the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, Tuesday, November 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)