US President Donald Trump announced late on Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas had “both signed off” on the “first phase” of a plan to end the two-year genocidal war on Gaza.
Writing on the social media platform Truth social, Trump said: “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. All Parties will 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.
“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
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Minutes later, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said an agreement had been reached on “all the provisions and implementation mechanisms” of the first phase of the ceasfire plan, “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,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose not comment on the announcement, instead writing on X that “with God’s help we will bring them all home.”
Earlier on Wednesday Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’s negotiating team, said that Hamas had come to the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh “to conduct responsible and serious consultations.”
He said the delegation arrived with the explicit goal of ending the war, Israel withdrawing completely from the Gaza Strip, and the release of all Israeli captives, living and dead, in exchange for Palestinian captives detained in Israeli prisons, in accordance with the Trump plan.
Last week, Trump unveiled his controversial 20-point plan for ending the devastating two-year, which gave general precedence to Israel’s framing of the situation in Gaza and its stated security concerns.
Point one of the plan said: “Gaza will be a deradicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours”.
The proposal, which has been widely criticised from pro-Palestine advocates, also said that disgraced former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will serve alongside Trump on a transitional committee overseeing the strip.
US officials have suggested they want to initially focus talks on a halt to the fighting and the logistics of how the hostages and political prisoners would be released.
Since the war erupted, more than 238,000 Palestinians have either been killed, wounded or are missing – with much of Gaza’s infrastructure – including homes, schools, universities, mosques, churches, public spaces, and health centres – reduced to rubble.
Recent reports, based on Israeli military intelligence data, indicate that more than 80 percent of those killed in the enclave through to May of this year were civilians.
