TEL AVIV, October 12. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel is prepared to immediately receive all hostages held by Gaza militants.

"Israel is ready for the immediate reception of all hostages," the prime minister said during a conversation with the Coordinator for Captives and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch. His office disseminated the remarks following The Wall Street Journal’s report that Hamas is ready to transfer 20 hostages as early as Sunday, according to state broadcaster Kan.

Kan reported that all hostages are expected to be released before US President Donald Trump arrives in Israel on October 13.

Earlier, the White House press service published the US leader’s working schedule, according to which Trump will arrive in Israel on the morning of October 13. Later, he will meet with the families of hostages held by the radical Palestinian movement Hamas and will address the Knesset, becoming the first sitting US president to do so since George W. Bush in 2008. Netanyahu personally invited Trump to speak after the Israeli president's office first announced the expected visit on October 9 after Trump stated that the Israel-Hamas talks in Egypt had yielded an agreement on the first phase of a peace plan. According to the US leader, phase one provides for the release of all hostages in the near future and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to agreed positions inside Gaza.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said in the early hours on October 10 that the government had approved the deal for the release of hostages, both alive and dead. The Israeli military announced on Friday that the Gaza ceasefire agreement came into effect from 9:00 a.m. GMT and the Israeli troops began positioning themselves along the updated deployment lines. From this time, a 72-hour countdown started until the release of hostages held by the Palestinian movement Hamas in the embattled enclave.