Hamas will return the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza early next week, President Donald Trump said on Thursday, after the two sides agreed on the initial terms of a deal that could pave the way to a ceasefire and bring relief to the families of hostages and to two million Palestinians in the territory.
“We are getting the hostages back on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting at the White House. He called the agreement “a momentous breakthrough” that will bring “peace in the Middle East”, and said the deal would be officially signed in Egypt.
Israel and Hamas were preparing for an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners this weekend after an agreement overnight, the culmination of sustained pressure from Trump and Arab mediators. Trump suggested that he would travel over the weekend to the region.
Though details were scarce, the agreement promised at least a ceasefire if not a permanent end to a conflict that has been catastrophic for Gazans, left Hamas battered militarily, and exhausted Israelis.
Trump said on social media that both sides had agreed to the first phase of his peace plan, which requires Israel to pull back its troops to an agreed-upon line in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is convening his cabinet on Thursday to sign off on the agreement. “With God’s help we will bring them all home,” he said.
Shosh Bedrosian, an Israel government spokesperson, said a full ceasefire in Gaza would go into effect 24 hours after the cabinet endorses the deal. After that, Hamas will have 72 hours to return “all of our hostages”, Bedrosian said.
Israeli forces will withdraw to an agreed-upon line in Gaza that will leave the Israeli military in control of about 53 per cent of the territory, she added.
In return for all the surviving hostages, and the bodies of others, the agreement calls for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
But the initial agreement addresses only a few of the 20 points in a plan Trump proposed last month, and some of the most difficult issues between Israel and Hamas appeared to have been left to a future phase of negotiations. Those include who would rule postwar Gaza and whether, to what degree and how Hamas would lay down its weapons.
Netanyahu’s office said early Thursday that he had spoken with Trump, exchanged congratulations and invited the President to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and that Trump was expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas official, suggested that Israel and Hamas were wrangling over the names of Palestinian prisoners to be released as a part of the deal.
“It appears that Netanyahu is striving to blow up theceasefire agreement before its implementation by back-tracking on the lists of prisoners,” he said in a post on X.
In Gaza, where food shortages led international experts to declare a famine in part of the territory, aid workers expressed hope that they could soon begin speeding supplies to the hungry.
Hamas said in a statement early on Thursday that the agreement would lead to the end of the war in Gaza and Israel’s withdrawal from the territory. Hamas and Qatar, one of the countries brokering the negotiations, also indicated in statements that the agreement would allow for the entry of aid into Gaza.Hamas called on Trump and others to compel Israel “to fully implement the agreement’s requirements and not allow it to evade or delay” carrying them out.
A formal ceasefire was expected to take effect only after the Israeli government signs off the agreement later on Thursday, according to an Israeli official briefed on the agreement.
Hours after Trump announced the deal, the Israeli military reminded residents of the Gaza Strip in a statement that Israeli troops continued to occupy the territory and that they were still fighting a war.
The Israeli hostages in Gaza are expected to be released as soon as this weekend, likely on Sunday, said an official familiar with the details of the agreement who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy.
New York Times News Service