Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first phase” of a peace plan to pause fighting and release some hostages and prisoners held in Gaza, bringing the best hope yet of a definitive end to a bloody two-year conflict that has killed ten of thousands, destabilised much of the Middle East and prompted protests across the world.
Donald Trump announced the agreement on his Truth Social network saying all of the hostages held in Gaza would be released soon and Israel would withdraw troops to an agreed upon line as the first step to a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace”.
Hamas said on Thursday it had reached the agreement after talks on the proposal from the US president, confirming the deal includes an Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Hamas called on Trump and guarantor states to ensure Israel fully implements the ceasefire. The group also said it would release the 20 hostages still alive as early as this weekend, with sources saying an exchange with Palestinian prisoners would happen within 72 hours of the deals signing, which is expected to be Thursday.
In an interview later on Wednesday, Trump said he believed the hostages would be “coming back” Monday.
Responding to the announcement, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “With God’s help, we will bring them all home.”

Netanyahu described the development as a “great day for Israel” and said he would convene the government on Thursday to approve the Gaza ceasefire agreement aimed at bringing home all the hostages.
“I thank President Trump and his team from the bottom of my heart for their commitment to this sacred mission of freeing our hostages,” Netanyahu said.
The families of hostages and their supporters started chanting “Nobel prize to Trump” as they gathered in the early hours of the morning in Tel Aviv. Some popped open a bottle of champagne and cheered. Crying tears of joy, families hugged previously released hostages as the square continued to fill with Israelis.
Palestinians in Gaza reacted to the news with a mix of joy and disbelief. “Honestly, when I heard the news, I couldn’t hold back. Tears of joy flowed. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the constant feeling that we could die at any moment,” Samer Joudeh told the AFP news agency from Gaza.
The US president hailed what he said was a “great day” for the Arab and Muslim world, Israel and all surrounding nations, as well as the US.
“We thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!” he posted.
Netanyahu and Trump spoke by phone and congratulated each other on the agreement on Wednesday, and the Israeli prime minister invited the president to address Israel’s parliament, according to Netanyahu’s office.
The UN chief, António Guterres, welcomed the Israel-Hamas agreement and called on all parties to “abide fully” by its terms.

Speaking from India, UK prime minister Keir Starmer called it a moment of “profound relief”.
“I am grateful for the tireless diplomatic efforts of Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye and the United States, supported by our regional partners, in securing this crucial first step. This agreement must now be implemented in full, without delay, and accompanied by the immediate lifting of all restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said.
Successful completion of the deal would mark the biggest foreign policy achievement so far for Trump, who took office in January promising to quickly end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, only to be confronted with obstacles and complexities he had apparently not foreseen.
Senior envoys from the US, Qatar and Turkey had joined the talks this week, apparently adding momentum to discussions launched on Monday. Trump sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Signs that a deal was close came earlier on Wednesday during a White House roundtable, as secretary of state Marco Rubio handed the president a handwritten note with the words “very close” underlined.
“You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” read the hand-scrawled note on White House stationery. After reading the message, the text of which was captured by an Associated Press photographer.
Many of the details of the agreement reached after 3 days of indirect talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh remain unclear and challenges of implementing its terms are immense.
But in recent days, negotiators have closed gaps between Hamas and Israel over the details of the first phase of the 21-point plan announced by Trump in the White House last week.
It was not immediately certain whether the parties had made any progress on thornier questions about the future of the conflict, including whether Hamas will demilitarise, as Trump has demanded, and eventual governance of the war-torn territory.
But the agreement, 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.
After the announcement of the deal, Trump told Fox News that the US would play a role in helping to rebuild war-torn Gaza.
“We’ll be involved in helping them make it successful, and helping it stay peaceful,” the president said, adding he was “very confident there’ll be peace in the Middle East.”
The war began with the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, many of them civilians. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, devastated Gaza and upended global politics.
In recent days, Israel has dialled down its military campaign at Trump’s behest, but it has not halted strikes altogether. Gaza medical authorities reported eight people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, the lowest toll for weeks. Daily death tolls had been about 10 times as high over the past month as Israeli forces advance on Gaza City.