Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed to pause fighting in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, accepting key elements of a plan proposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The deal, which Palestinians have greeted with caution, marks a significant step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
The agreement, which follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by Trump, is to be signed Thursday in Egypt, and calls for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Under the deal, aid deliveries to Gaza are expected to surge after more than two years of war. The Israeli military said it was preparing to pull back troops from parts of Gaza as part of the agreement.
Trump’s plan also calls for Hamas to be disarmed and for Gaza to be governed by a transitional authority headed by the US president himself, though this aspect remains unaddressed.
Hamas sources said the group would release 20 living hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in the first phase of the deal, with the swap to take place within 72 hours of its implementation.
The timing of the implementation would be announced on Thursday, the sources added. Trump said he believed all hostages would “be coming back on Monday.”
Under the plan, Israel would retain an open-ended military presence along Gaza’s border with Israel, while an international force made up largely of troops from Arab and Muslim nations would oversee internal security. The US would lead a major internationally funded reconstruction effort.
The proposal also outlines a potential future role for the Palestinian Authority — a move Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes. The Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, would first be required to undergo sweeping reforms that could take years to complete.
The plan remains vague on the prospect of a future Palestinian state, an idea Netanyahu and his government continue to reject.
A growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body, have said that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide. More than 67,000 Palestinians -- mostly women and children -- have been killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Gaza's civil defence agency reported several strikes on the territory after the announcement of the deal.
What Gazans say?
In the Gaza Strip, where much of the territory lies in ruins, Palestinians have been desperate for a breakthrough.
Thousands fleeing Israel’s latest ground offensive in northern Gaza and Gaza City have set up makeshift tents along the beach in the central part of the territory, sometimes using blankets for shelter.
Ayman Saber, a Palestinian from Khan Younis, reacted to the ceasefire announcement by saying he plans to return to his home city and try to rebuild his house, which was destroyed last year by an Israeli strike.
“I will rebuild the house, we will rebuild Gaza,” he said.
The announcement has sparked waves of joy in the beseiged strip, much of which has been flattened by bombardment and most of whose residents have been displaced at least once over the past two years.
"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," displaced Palestinian Samer Joudeh told AFP.
"Now, we finally feel like we're getting a moment of respite."
In Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, young people sang, danced and clapped, AFP footage showed.
The deal is being thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Red Sea.
There was none of the pomp around the talks of previous deals agreed in Egypt, in a possible signal that the deeper issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not being addressed.
Qatar said the deal was the "first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".
The hostages are to be freed in exchange for 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began, added the source within Hamas.
'With God's help'
Netanyahu said he would bring the hostages home "with God's help", and an official source added the premier's cabinet would meet Thursday to approve the deal. Trump said earlier that he may travel to the Middle East this week as a deal was "very close."
The fast-paced developments came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted an event at the White House on Wednesday and hand Trump an urgent note about the progress of the negotiations in Egypt.
"I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday," Trump said, adding that he was "most likely" to turn up in Egypt but would also consider going to Gaza.
Hamas has submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released from Israeli jails in the first phase of the truce.
In exchange, Hamas is to free the remaining 47 hostages, both alive and dead, who were seized in October 2023.
In Egypt, the talks were taking place under the shadow of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures. Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Protests, prisoners
Global pressure to end the war has escalated, with a UN-declared famine unfolding in Gaza and Israeli hostage families longing for their loved ones' return.
Protests have erupted in countries around the globe in recent weeks, and a UN probe last month accused Israel of genocide, a charge the government rejected as "distorted and false."
Hamas has also been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
One key to the negotiations was the names of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas pushed for.
High-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti -- from Hamas's rival, the Fatah movement -- is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media.
Hamas's top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, also said the Islamist group wants "guarantees from President Trump and the sponsor countries that the war will end once and for all."
