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Israel said Thursday all parties have signed the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, adding that Hamas freeing the captives would “bring the end to this war”.
The agreement in Egypt follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, after more than two years of war.
Trump said he planned to leave on Sunday for the Middle East and was hoping to travel to Israel, where he may address parliament, and maybe to Egypt.
“The hostages will be coming back Monday or Tuesday. I’ll probably be there, I hope to be there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to hostages taken by Hamas during its October 2023 attack on Israel.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had invited his US counterpart to take part in a “celebration to be held in Egypt” for the agreement for the first phase of a ceasefire.
Despite celebrations in Israel and Gaza and a flood of messages from world leaders hailing the deal, numerous issues remain unsettled, including the plan’s call for Hamas to disarm and a proposed transitional authority for Gaza led by Trump himself.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the Palestinian Islamist movement rejected the latter.
“No Palestinian would accept this. All the factions, including the Palestinian Authority, reject this,” Hamdan told Qatar-based broadcaster Al Araby.
“There will be disarming,” he told reporters, adding there would also be “pullbacks” by Israeli forces.
Trump, who in February proposed that the US take over Gaza, also rejected speculation that Palestinians could be forced out of the devastated enclave.
“Nobody’s going to be forced to leave. No, it’s just the opposite. This is a great plan,” Trump said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, faced pushback from his far-right allies.
The ceasefire was to take hold within 24 hours of the security cabinet meeting, the Israeli government said. That meeting concluded late Thursday, Israeli media reported, and was to be followed by a full cabinet meeting to approve the deal, under which the military should withdraw from Gaza.
“The final draft of phase one was signed this morning in Egypt by all parties to release all the hostages,” government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told journalists earlier.
“All of our hostages, the living and the deceased, will be released 72 hours later, which will bring us to Monday,” she said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the release of the hostages “should bring the end to this war”.
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