A planned Saudi meeting of Arab leaders in response to US President Donald Trump's plan to take control of Gaza has been postponed by a day and expanded, Arab diplomats said on Monday.

"The mini Arab summit in Riyadh has been postponed from Thursday to Friday, February 21," a Saudi source told AFP. An Arab diplomatic source confirmed the new date.

When Hamas threatened to call off the planned release of three Israeli hostages last week, U.S. President Donald Trump stepped into the picture with an unexpected ultimatum.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump called on Hamas to release all of the more than 70 hostages it is holding by noon on Saturday. Otherwise, he warned, "all hell is going to break loose."

Israel issued a tender for the construction of nearly 1,000 additional settler homes in the occupied West Bank, an anti-settlement watchdog said Monday.

Peace Now says the development of 974 new housing units would allow the population of the Efrat settlement to expand by 40% and further block the development of the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Hagit Ofran, who leads the group's settlement monitoring, said construction can begin after the contracting process and issuing of permits, which could take another year at least.

Israel's security cabinet was set to discuss on Monday the next phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, as top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio began a visit to Saudi Arabia where he will push Donald Trump's proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza.

Rubio travelled to Riyadh from Israel, where he kicked off his first Middle East trip as Trump's secretary of state.

Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front Sunday against their common enemies, threatening to "open the gates of hell" on Hamas and "finish the job" against Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israel's prime minister in Jerusalem on Sunday for talks on the Gaza ceasefire, launching a Middle East tour a day after the latest hostage-prisoner exchange.

On his first visit to the region as Washington's top diplomat, Rubio is expected to push U.S. President Donald Trump's widely condemned proposal to take control of Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.

Israel's defense ministry said Sunday that a shipment of "heavy" U.S.-made bombs arrived overnight in Israel, as Marco Rubio began his first visit to the country as Washington's top diplomat.

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20 to discuss President Donald Trump's proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza, a source with knowledge of the preparations said on Friday.

Israel is working with the U.S. to get all of its hostages out of Gaza as "quickly as possible", a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday.

Gaza militants freed three Israeli hostages on Saturday in an exchange that is also saw the release of 369 Palestinians from Israeli custody, the latest such swap under an ongoing truce deal.

An AFP journalist saw masked Hamas militants parade the hostages onto a stage in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, where they were told to address the crowd before their handover to the Red Cross and eventually Israel.