Israel and Hamas have agreed to the initial phase of a ceasefire plan in Gaza, pausing hostilities in the devastated territory and bringing the best hope yet of a definitive end to a bloody two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands, destabilised much of the Middle East and prompted protests around 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 line as the first step to a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace”.
Hamas said on Thursday it had agreed to the US president’s proposal and confirmed the deal included an Israeli withdrawal from the territory and a hostage-prisoner exchange.
Trump is expected to visit Jerusalem on Sunday, according to a statement by the Israeli president’s office, though the US has not officially announced a visit.
There was celebration among Palestinians in Gaza and among Israelis, though few anywhere needed reminding that two previous deals had failed to end the war.
Israel said “all parties” had signed the final draft of “phase one” of the deal in Egypt on Thursday morning.
The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the ceasefire would take effect once the agreement was ratified by his government, which is scheduled to convene at 6pm (1600 BST) on Thursday after a security cabinet meeting.
An Israeli government spokesperson said the ceasefire would go into force within 24 hours of the cabinet meeting. The 20 hostages believed to still be alive in Gaza would then be freed within 72 hours, they said.
Israel’s forces would withdraw to an agreed line in the Gaza Strip that would leave them in control of 53% of the territory, a spokesperson for the Israeli government said.
Israel will free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange, but the spokesperson said Marwan Barghouti, a senior figure in Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement who is hugely popular in the West Bank and Gaza and has frequently been talked of as a future leader, would not be among them.
Hamas called on Trump and guarantor states to ensure Israel fully implemented the ceasefire.
The Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Al Jazeera Arabic the group was seeking guarantees from international mediators that Israel would implement the provisions of the deal, after accusing it of “manipulating” parts of the agreement.
“There was talk with friends about a ceasefire at noon this day, but the occupation, for internal considerations, is postponing the announcement to other dates,” said Qassem said.
In an interview on Wednesday, Trump said he believed the hostages would be “coming back” on Monday.
In Tel Aviv, families of hostages and their supporters started chanting “Nobel prize to Trump” as they gathered in the early hours of the morning. Some popped open champagne and cheered. Crying tears of joy, families hugged previously released hostages in Hostage Square, the area occupied for the last two years by protesters calling for the captives’ release, where the mood was festive..
“I’m feeling fantastic, it feels like I’m in a dream. Two years of this, who would have thought that it would finally happen?” said Margo Orton, a retired nursery teacher who was holding a US and an Israeli flag.
Palestinians in Gaza reacted to the news with a mix of joy and disbelief. “Thank God for the ceasefire, the end of bloodshed and killing,” said Abdul Majeed abd Rabbo, in the southern city of Khan Younis. “I am not the only one happy, all of the Gaza Strip is happy, all the Arab people, all of the world is happy with the ceasefire and the end of bloodshed.”
Trump 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.
The UN chief, António Guterres, welcomed the agreement and called on all parties to “abide fully” by its terms.
Speaking from India, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, called it a moment of “profound relief”. “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 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh this week, apparently adding momentum to discussions launched on Monday. Trump sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and the special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Signs that a deal was close came earlier on Wednesday during a White House round table, as the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, gave the president a handwritten note with the words “very close” underlined.
Many of the details of the agreement reached after three days of indirect talks remain unclear and the challenges of implementing its terms are immense.
If negotiators have closed gaps between Hamas and Israel over the details of the first phase of the 20-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, such as how Hamas will be disarmed, as Netanyahu has demanded, and the eventual governance of Gaza.
But if implemented, the agreement would bring the two sides closer than any previous effort to halt a war that evolved into a regional conflict, drawing in countries such as Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, and reshaping the Middle East. One previous ceasefire lasted just 10 days, the other six weeks.
After the announcement of the deal, Trump told Fox News 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.
More than 67,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the relentless Israeli offensive, and more than 170,000 injured. Approximately 20,000 children are among the dead. Much of Gaza has been reduced to ruins, its people now homeless and destitute in the rubble of their homes among barren fields and broken roads. Witnesses describe entire neighbourhoods, even towns, reduced to fine gravel. Thousands more casualties are thought to be buried and yet to be identified.
About 1,200 people, also mostly civilians, were killed by Hamas militants in the raid on Israel of 7 October 2023, the worst such loss in the history of the country. A further 251 people were taken hostage. Hundreds of Israeli servicemen and women have died in the war in Gaza. Hamas has already said it will have difficulty locating the remains of all the dead hostages.
In recent days, Israel reduced the intensity of its military campaign at Trump’s behest, but it has not halted strikes altogether. Gaza medical authorities reported eight people were killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours.Even if aid surges in, through the UN and the Red Crescent as specified under Trump’s plan, hundreds of thousands will still not have enough food or shelter.
The war in Gaza has spilled across the region, triggering further conflicts in Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. The relief among regional rulers, many of whom faced waves of popular anger, will be great, if tempered with some anxiety about what may follow in Gaza. They will now have to answer the question of who will provide troops for the promised stabilisation force in the territory and pay for its reconstruction, which will take decades.
Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
