Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first phase” of his peace plan to pause fighting and release at least some hostages and prisoners, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday.
“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,” Trump wrote. “All Parties will be treated fairly!"
Negotiators have been meeting in Egypt for days to hash out a Trump-backed peace plan that he hopes will ultimately result in a permanent end to the two-year war and bring about a sustainable peace in the region.
The initial agreement was confirmed by Israeli officials and Hamas, as well as mediator Qatar. It was not immediately clear whether the parties had made any progress on thornier questions about the future of the conflict, including whether Hamas will demilitarize, as Trump has demanded, and eventual governance of the war-torn territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media, "With God’s help we will bring them all home."
The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, many of them civilians. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, devastated Gaza and upended global politics.
Netannyahu supporters have backed the sustained attack as a necessary response to an existential threat against Israel. But critics, who've spurred global protests against Netanyahu's government, call his response excessively destructive and say Palestinian women and children have been caught up in genocide-level violence.
Gaza authorities say more than 67,000 people have been killed and much of the enclave has been flattened since Israel began its military response to the Hamas cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.
In additoin to the fatalities suffered by Israel on the date of the Hamas attack, the group took 251 hostagez back to Gaza, according to Israeli officials, with 20 of the 48 hostages still held believed to be alive.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump said that he might travel this weekend to Egypt, where his envoys were in talks to try to seal the ceasefire and hostage-release agreement.
Trump's Major Role
Trump has emerged in recent months as chief architect behind the new U.S.-brokered plan aimed at ending the Gaza war.
According to Reuters and The Washington Post, the initial stage calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and international oversight of humanitarian aid.
Trump formally unveiled the proposal at a late-September White House press conference alongside Netanyahu, describing it as “the most detailed, enforceable, and fair peace framework ever put forward for Gaza.”
The Times of Israel reported that Trump’s plan, developed over several months by U.S., Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators, lays out 20 specific steps leading to Gaza’s eventual demilitarization and the creation of a transitional governing authority backed by regional partners.
Trump’s personal imprint on the process has been unmistakable. As Politico noted, he has repeatedly intervened to keep talks on track and enforce his deadlines. A nd there have been reports he may take a leading role within that transnational governing authority.
He has pressed both sides to agree to his timeline, ordered temporary pauses in Israeli bombardments to facilitate hostage exchanges, and warned that U.S. support will depend on compliance with the peace plan’s terms.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, real-estate executive Steve Witkoff, has been shuttling between Cairo, Doha, and Tel Aviv to finalize implementation details, according to AP News.
With Israel and Hamas now having “signed off” on the first stage, attention is turning to whether the ceasefire holds — and whether Trump’s self-described “deal of the century, part two” can withstand the region’s volatility long enough to deliver a lasting peace.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
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