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Donald Trump has said Israel and Hamas have agreed the first step in his plan for a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, marking a major breakthrough in talks to end two years of conflict.
The US president wrote on Truth Social late on Wednesday: “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.”
Trump’s post came hours after he said he was prepared to travel to the Middle East as early as this weekend to push the sides to accept his peace plan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Netanyahu said he would convene his government on Thursday “to approve the agreement and bring all our beloved hostages home”.
“I offer my heartfelt thanks to President Trump and his team for their dedication to this sacred mission of freeing our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement late on Wednesday night. “With God’s help, together we will continue to achieve all our goals and enhance peace with our neighbours.”
Hamas is expected to release all of the hostages 72 hours after the government agrees to the deal, two people familiar with the deal said.
Senior negotiators from the US, Qatar and Turkey had joined talks in Egypt on Wednesday to end the war in Gaza, which began in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack.
They included US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who has been involved in drafting the 20-point US peace plan, according to state-linked Egyptian media.
Trump thanked “the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey”.
“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America,” he added.
Qatar’s foreign ministry also confirmed an “agreement was reached tonight on all terms and mechanisms for implementing the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement”.
The deal “will lead to stopping the war, releasing Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners, and allowing aid to enter . . . The details will be announced later”, ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said.
Both Israel and Hamas expressed broad support for Trump’s plan last week, but points of contention remained between the warring parties.
Under the US plan, the Gaza Strip would be governed by a committee of Palestinian technocrats, overseen by an international supervisory body led by Trump.
The first phase of Trump’s plan centres on the hostage release. Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining 48 hostages — 20 of whom are believed to be alive — and that it accepts that it will give up control of Gaza, which it has ruled since 2007.
But Hamas has made little reference to other points in the US proposal.
In exchange for Hamas freeing the hostages, Israel would release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, as well as 1,700 Gazans detained after the militant group’s October 2023 attack.