Live: Israel dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza on Sunday

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to pull out of the Gaza summit in Egypt on Monday after some leaders were unhappy at the prospect of having him there, AFP reported. 

Netanyahu was invited by US president Donald Trump to the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh at the last minute, but some leaders – such as Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani – apparently said they would boycott the summit if he was there.

"The Iraqi delegation informed the Egyptian side that it was not prepared to participate in the regional summit if Netanyahu attended," adviser Ali al-Mousawi told AFP. 

“Iraq has taken a clear position on this matter and has informed the Egyptians of its rejection, and a number of other delegations have announced their intention to withdraw if Netanyahu participates,” he added.

He said Cairo had then informed Netanyahu he "could not be received, which led to the cancellation of his participation in the conference". 

Turkish media reported that Erdogan learned of Netanyahu's expected attendance while en route to Sharm el-Sheikh, and his plane circled over the Red Sea and refused to touch down until it was confirmed the Israeli leader would not be coming. 

Netanyahu said he would not be taking part "due to the timing", which coincided with the start at sundown of the Jewish holiday of Simhat Torah, his office said.

A vote on Israel’s participation in the Eurovision song contest next year has been postponed following a Gaza ceasefire deal, the organisers said on Monday.

A vote had been scheduled to take place in November after several countries pledged to boycott the event if Israeli contestants took part in the competition. The vote is to occur because of criticism of Israel and its war on Gaza, which has been recognised as a genocide by the United Nations. 

“The Board agreed to put the issue on the agenda of its ordinary Winter General Assembly, which will be taking place in December,” instead of the extraordinary meeting that had been slated to take place online in November, a European Broadcasting Union statement said.

In a post on X, former US President Bill Clinton congratulated Trump, Qatar and other world leaders on the ceasefire agreement on Monday. 

"President Trump and his administration, Qatar, and other regional actors deserve great credit for keeping everyone engaged until the agreement was reached."

However, Clinton stopped short of condemning Israel for waging a war that has been labelled a genocide by the United Nations, referring to it as a "conflict", failing to mention the more than 67,000 dead Palestinians. 

"The horrors of the October 7 attack on Israel and the conflict it reignited have resulted in unbearable human loss," he said.

The remains of four Israeli captives have now been released and have been transported to Israel, where they will be forensically examined and identified. 

Hamas released the remains of two more captives on Monday, in addition to two it released earlier in the day to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

US President Donald Trump said during his White House briefing last week that it would be challenging to locate all of the remains of the Israeli captives immediately because some of the bodies would be a little hard to find.

An international committee will help locate the bodies.

Palestinian journalist and photographer Saleh Aljafarawi was buried the same day as his brother Naji Aljafrawani was released from an Israeli prison as part of an exchange of captives on Monday.

Saleh was killed in Gaza on Sunday by an Israel-backed militia as he was reporting on them engaging in fighting with Hamas security forces, sources told Al Jazeera.

In one of these last videos, Saleh thanked everyone who had stood with Palestine "in any way" over the last two years, whether through boycotting, participating in protests or sit-ins or some other means.

"Many tragedies would begin to emerge in the coming days," he said, unaware his death would be one of them. "Always stay with Gaza. We are the rightful owners of this land, and we will always remain on this land and rebuild it, and we will rebuild Gaza to be even better than it was before," he added. 

US President Donald Trump signed off on his plan for peace along with leaders from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey at the Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday. 

No representative from Israel or Hamas was present at the summit.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in the audience. 

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made an impromptu address at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and nominated US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize during a live broadcast on Monday.

Sharif said Trump deserved the Nobel Prize for ending the recent conflict between India and Pakistan and Israel's war on Gaza. The war on the enclave has been recognised as a genocide by the United Nations. 

It is the second time Sharif has nominated Trump for the prize. In June, he nominated the US president for helping de-escalate the India-Pakistan conflict from the brink of all-out war after four days of fighting. The decision caused controversy in Pakistan and internationally.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met US President Donald Trump at the Gaza summit in Egypt on Monday, with the pair meeting for the first time in eight years, AFP reported.

Trump and Abbas spoke for several seconds before the US leader held his hand and then gave a thumbs-up to the cameras at the summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron escorted Abbas to the podium to meet Trump.

The Israeli prison service said Monday it had freed nearly 2,000 largely Palestinian detainees as part of the peace deal, AFP reported.

It said it had transferred 1,968 captives - who it described as "terrorists" - from several prisons to the notorious Ofer and Ktziot prisons. 

It then released Palestinian captives from Ofer prison to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and from the Ktziot prison to Kerem Shalom crossing.

The bodies of two Israeli captives held in Gaza were handed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday, according to the Israeli public broadcaster.

All 20 living hostages were released earlier in the day as part of phase one of the ceasefire deal.

- AFP reporting

Dozens of world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, arrived in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday to discuss the US president's proposal to end Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

The Egyptian presidency said in a statement that the summit will seek "to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability".

Egypt's foreign ministry said that during the "historic" gathering, a "document ending the war in the Gaza Strip" is set to be signed.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto are all scheduled to attend the summit, while Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is also taking part.

However, neither Israel nor Hamas will have representatives at the talks.

Read more: Trump arrives in Egypt to attend summit on 'ending Gaza war'

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is attending the Gaza summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh.

US President Donald Trump has suggested that Blair would potentially helm a transitional authority to oversee the governance of Gaza.

However, Trump told reporters earlier on Monday that he wants to "find out that he is an acceptable choice to everybody".

Hamas has warned that Blair would not be welcome in any role governing Gaza.

"When it comes to Tony Blair, unfortunately, we Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, and maybe others around the world have bad memories of him," Hamas official Basem Naim told Sky News.

"We can still remember his role in killing, causing thousands or millions of deaths to innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq."

On Sunday, Hussein al-Sheikh, the deputy president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), met Blair in the Jordanian capital Amman, where he expressed a readiness to work with the former UK prime minister.

His comments came less than a week after the PA's justice minister, Sharhabeel al-Zaeem, slammed Blair's involvement, saying: "Is this the independent Palestinian state we are aiming for?

"All these struggles for all these years in order to have Mr Blair, who failed in London, who failed in Britain, who failed in Iraq, come and - with all due respect at a personal level to Mr Blair - be our guardian as if we were minors?" he said.

US President Donald Trump has arrived in Egypt where he is co-chairing a summit on Gaza's future after the ceasefire.

Online tributes poured in for prominent Palestinian journalist and activist Saleh al-Jafarawi after he was shot multiple times and killed late on Sunday while covering clashes between an Israel-backed entity and Hamas fighters in Gaza City.

Al Jazeera reported that an "armed militia affiliated with the occupation [Israel]" was seeking to exploit the security vacuum in the city following Friday's announcement that Israel and Hamas had approved a deal to "end the war" and exchange prisoners. Several displaced Palestinians were also killed during the clashes.

Many social media users and fellow journalists took to social media to mourn Jafarawi and reflect on the legacy of his reporting over the past two years.

"He loved his people, he loved his religion, he loved his land. He covered the genocide for two years as the powers of the world tried to silence his voice," posted a prominent pro-Palestine account on Instagram. "His voice will live on, even after the occupation ends."

To many, Saleh was a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness and determination, with one user saying: "He survived 2 years of genocide sharing truth with a smile to the world while being targeted."

Read more: Gaza: Tributes pour in for slain Palestinian journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said in response to Hamas's anouncement that it would hand over the remains of four Israeli captives that the move is a "failure to meet requirements".

"Any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a gross violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly," Katz said in a post on X.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, all 48 Israeli captives are to be released within 72 hours of the Israeli army's redeployment. Hamas released all 20 living Israeli captives on Monday, and is yet to release the remains of 28 dead captives.

Hamas previously indicated that recovering the bodies of some dead hostages may take longer, as not all burial sites are known.

Reporting by Reuters