US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had reached a long-sought deal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release under his plan for ending the two-year-old war in the Palestinian enclave, Reuters reported on Thursday.
“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“This means that all of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace,” Trump added.
An Israeli source said the hostages are expected to be released on Saturday or Sunday, according to the CNN.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the first phase of the peace deal “a great day for Israel” in a latest statement, saying he will convene Israel’s government tomorrow to approve the agreement and “bring all our dear hostages home,” BBC reported on Thursday.
Hamas also said in a statement Thursday that the agreement will “end the war on Gaza, ensure the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces, allow the entry of humanitarian aid, and implement a prisoner exchange.” It calls on Trump and other parties to “ensure that the Israeli occupation government fully complies with the terms of the agreement”.
A senior Palestinian official told media that the ceasefire will go into effect immediately after approval by the Israeli government, adding that Israel will allow 400 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily during the first five days, with the number to increase gradually in later stages, per the BBC.
The deal, if implemented, would bring the two sides closer than any previous effort to halt a war that had evolved into a regional conflict, drawing in countries such as Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, and reshaping the Middle East, according to Reuters.
The announcement comes just hours after Trump said he may travel to the Middle East this weekend, and was open to potentially traveling to the Gaza Strip, reported CBS News.
A little over a week ago, Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan at a White House meeting with Netanyahu, who expressed his full support for the proposal.
The current round of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas began on October 6 in Egypt, with Egyptian and Qatari officials acting as intermediaries. US envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, had been expected to join the talks on Wednesday.
The negotiations come two years and two days after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.
Since the war erupted, Israeli airstrikes have devastated the Gaza Strip, causing widespread famine and displacement, and killing at least 67,183 people and injuring 169,841 others, according to Gaza’s health authorities, per Xinhua News Agency.
A Chinese expert hailed the conclusion of the first phase of peace “marking a significant milestone,” Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The peace process remains largely in the hands of the US and Israel, rather than Hamas. So with Washington’s stance shifting notably, the outcome now appears more promising, Zhu added.
For Isreal, it has not yet achieved most of its goals, such as the complete elimination of Hamas. However, it has significantly weakened Hamas to an unprecedented extent and tightened its control over Palestine, Zhu noted.
Yet, the expert pointed out that the future course will depend largely on Israel — on whether it maintains its hardline approach or triggers new tensions in Gaza and with Hamas.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun previously stated in August during a press conference that, Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and is an integral part of the Palestinian territory.
The spokesperson stressed that the right way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and realize the release of people being held is an immediate ceasefire, and the key to fully settling the conflict in Gaza is also a ceasefire. “This is the only means to pave the way for ending the conflict and uphold security in the region. China stands ready to work with the rest of the international community to stop the fighting in Gaza as early as possible, ease the humanitarian disaster, implement the two-State solution and ultimately realize the full, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question,” he said. GT
