US President Donald Trump has said that Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on the first phase of a peace deal for Gaza. The agreement comes two years and two days after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to an attack on 7 October 2023, in which Hamas gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, Israeli military operations have since killed at least 67,183 people, including 20,179 children. The BBC provides an overview of the first phase of the agreement.
After intensive negotiations in Egypt, Israel and Hamas have agreed on the first phase of the US peace plan, Trump confirmed.
First phase
The agreement between the two sides, first announced by Trump, according to Qatar, includes all “provisions and mechanisms for implementing the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, which will lead to an end to the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the delivery of humanitarian aid”.
Hamas also announced the deal, saying it “envisions the end of the war in Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that he would convene a meeting of his cabinet to approve the agreement.
The agreement could be signed today in Egypt, sources close to the negotiations told France 1.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi invited Trump to “attend its signing.”
Hostages and aid
The guns will have to fall silent when the deal is signed.
The Israeli army said this morning that it was preparing to take hostages, but was also prepared for “all scenarios.”
Hamas will release all 20 hostages still alive (out of 47 still in Gaza), a Hamas official told AFP.
They will be exchanged for around 2,000 Palestinian detainees – 250 serving life sentences and 1,700 others held since the start of the war, according to the source. The agreement stipulates that the exchange will take place within 72 hours of signing.
Trump said he believed all hostages, dead and alive, would be “returned on Monday.”
“With God’s help, we will bring them all home,” Netanyahu said.
In addition, at least 400 trucks of humanitarian aid will enter the Gaza Strip daily during the first five days of the ceasefire, and that number will increase in the coming days, according to a Hamas source.
The agreement also provides for “the immediate return of displaced persons from the southern part of the Gaza Strip to Gaza City and the north,” a Hamas source said.
The Israeli army has urged the population not to attempt to return to those areas at this stage.
Phased withdrawal of Israeli forces
According to Donald Trump, the agreement calls for Israel to “withdraw its forces to an agreed line” inside the enclave.
An unnamed senior Hamas official said the agreement calls for a “planned withdrawal” of Israeli forces.
Hamas called on “President Trump and the guarantor countries of the agreement to force Israel to fully implement the terms of the agreement and not allow it to evade or delay in implementing what has been agreed.”
The US will be “engaged in peacekeeping” in the Gaza Strip, Trump promised in a statement to the American channel Fox News.
The Gaza Strip Civil Defense said that during the talks in Egypt, the Israeli army continued its deadly bombardment.
Hamas did not mention its own disarmament or the fate of its fighters, which are key points of the proposal.
Key issues unresolved
However, key issues remain unresolved – There are no details on Hamas’s disarmament, which is a key point of Trump’s plan. Hamas has previously refused to lay down its arms, saying it would only do so once a Palestinian state is established.
The future governance of Gaza is also disputed. The plan calls for Hamas to have no role and for Gaza to be temporarily run by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” before the Palestinian Authority takes over.
Celebrations in Gaza after the announcement of the agreement
“Thank God for the ceasefire, the end of the bloodshed and the killing,” Abdul Majeed abd Rabbo of Khan Younis told Reuters.
“I’m not the only one happy – the whole of Gaza is happy, the whole Arab people, the whole world is happy about the ceasefire and the end of the bloodshed,” he added.
World leaders called on the parties to respect the agreement.
