Israel and Hamas have reached a agreement about the first phase of the peace plan for Gaza that the president of the United States presented last week, Donald Trump.
It was the US president who first announced this agreement, which was later ratified by the two parties involved and by other mediating countries.
“This means that all the hostages will be released very soon e Israel will withdraw its troops to an agreed line“Trump wrote in a message on his Truth Social network.
He posted it at 6:51 p.m. Washington timeshortly before two in the morning in Gaza and Israel and in Sharm el Sheikhthe town in Egypt where the talks. In the last hours, Trump’s envoy to the region had joined them, Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law and advisor during his first term, Jared Kushneras well as the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed Abdulrahman al I will and there had been cautious talk of progress.
The messages from Netanyahu and Hamas
In Israel the prime minister Binyamine Netanyahu has issued a statement in which it has announced a meeting of his government this Thursday for the agreement to be ratified.
“This is a diplomatic success and one national and moral victory for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu wrote in X, who has only spoken of the “return home of all the hostages.”
He has also pointed to “a critical turning point” that has been reached, in his words, with “firm determination, powerful military action and the great efforts of our great friend and ally President Trump“
Hamas, for its part, has reported with a message in Telegram of “the conclusion of an agreement stipulating the end of the Gaza war, the withdrawal of the occupation, the help entry and a prisoner exchange.”
His statement urged Trump, Arab mediators and other international actors to “fforce the occupation government to fully comply all requirements of the agreement and not allowing him to evade or procrastinater the implementation of what was agreed”.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, one of the mediating countries in the negotiations, has assured in his statement about the agreement that the parties have accepted “all provisions and implementation mechanisms” and, like Hamas, has indicated that the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Initially, no one has given many concrete details, including specific timetables for the release of hostages, who under Trump’s 20-point plan will be exchanged for 50 Palestinians serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans imprisoned during the war. Nor is it specified where the Israeli withdrawal line will be set, and in his message in X the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced that “details will be announced later.”
However, in the hours following the announcement, some more information has been given. Hamas sources cited by AFP have assured that the release of hostages will be completed within 72 hours of the implementation of the agreement.
Trump himself, in a subsequent interview with Fox News, said that it could occur ““probably Monday” although a source familiar with the agreement cited on anonymity by ‘The New York Times’ has suggested that all live hostagesabout 20, could be released on Sunday.
“Towards a lasting peace” and looking at the Nobel
In his message in Truth Trump had declared himself “very proud” to make the announcement about the agreement. Although it is not clear that it will guarantee the end of the Gaza war, it does represent a monumental milestone after two years of brutal conflict that has left more than 67,000 Palestinians killed and a humanitarian tragedy, and Trump has stated that they are “the first steps towards a strong, lasting and eternal peace.”
“All parties will be treated fairly,” the Republican also wrote in the message, who spoke of “a GREAT day for the Arab and Muslim worldIsrael, all surrounding nations and the United States” and thanked in particular mediators from Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye.
“Blessed are those who make peace!” wrote Trump, who hours before the formal announcement of the agreement reiterated the idea that his efforts to achieve it, like the seven wars that he claims to have ended, make him worthy ofthe Nobel Peace Prize, what is announced this Friday in Oslo.
He did so at a round table at the White House on domestic policy (focused on “antifa”), a meeting in which the Secretary of State sent him a handwritten note, Marco Rubio, who then made some comments in the president’s ear.
Then Trump reported that they were “very close to an agreement” for the Middle East. In the note that Rubio had passed him, according to image captured by an Associated Press photographeryou could read: “You need to approve a message for Truth Social soon so you can be the first to announce the agreement.” Shortly after, Trump justified having to be absent from the meeting.
Possible trip this weekend
Trump also announced that I could travel to Egypt this weekenda point that was later confirmed by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. The spokesperson clarified that the president could fly that same Friday, after undergoing an annual “routine medical checkup” (although he had had one last April).
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