US President Donald Trump has announced a deal has been reached over the first phase in a peace plan for Gaza.
It includes all hostages to be released and Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza.
Taking to Truth Social, Trump wrote: “I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan.
“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.”
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New Zealand welcomes peace deal
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, welcomed the announcement.
“Over the past two years, both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered immensely,” Peters said. “Today is a positive first step in bringing that suffering to an end.
“We commend the efforts of the parties involved in the negotiations, including the US, Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye.”
Trump wrote that all parties in the two-year conflict would be treated fairly.
“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen.”
Pictures released from ceasefire talks in Sharm El Sheikh as Donald Trump says a deal is sealed
He ended his announcement with a quote from the Bible: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
AFP reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would bring home all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, after Trump and mediators reported a deal to end the Gaza war.
“With God’s help we will bring them all home,” Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement.
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Meanwhile, it is being reported by Egyptian state-linked media that Israel and Hamas had reached a deal for the end of the Gaza war, a hostage-prisoner exchange and aid entry into Gaza.
Al-Qahera News, which has links to the state intelligence services, said a deal “was reached tonight on all the terms and mechanisms for implementing the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement”.
Trump said earlier that he may travel to the Middle East later this week as a deal was “very close”.
In a dramatic moment, AFP journalists saw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupt an event at the White House 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 war-torn Gaza.
Trump’s plan called for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’ disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
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Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff arrived at the talks earlier.
‘Optimism prevails’
As night fell in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, an AFP contributor described an atmosphere of anticipation before the announcement, with joyful chants of “Allahu akbar”, meaning God is the greatest, and some celebratory gunfire into the air.
“We’re closely following every bit of news about the negotiations and the ceasefire,” said 50-year-old Mohammed Zamlot, who had been displaced from northern Gaza.
Hamas had submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released from Israeli jails in the first phase of the truce.
In exchange, Hamas is set to free the remaining 47 hostages, both alive and dead, who were seized in its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the war.
Qatar’s prime minister and Turkey’s intelligence chief were also expected at the talks on Wednesday.
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Hamas said it would be joined by delegations from Islamic Jihad, which has also held some of the hostages in Gaza, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The negotiations were taking place under the shadow of the second anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,183 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
The territory’s civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas’ authority, said the bombardment of Gaza had not stopped in the hours before the deal. An AFP journalist in Israel near the Gaza border reported hearing multiple explosions in the morning.
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Protests, prisoners
Global pressure to end the war has escalated, with much of Gaza flattened, a UN-declared famine unfolding and Israeli hostage families still longing for their loved ones’ return.
One key to the negotiations was the names of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas pushed for.
High-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti – from Hamas’ rival, the Fatah movement – is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media.
Hamas’ 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”.
Gaza mediator Qatar on Thursday confirmed an agreement for the first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as part of a peace deal for the Palestinian territory.
“The mediators announce that tonight an agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of 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 details will be announced later,” Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari posted on X.
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– Additional reporting Agence France-Presse
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