US President Donald Trump has announced that an agreement has been reached between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas on the implementation of the first phase of his proposed peace plan.
“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have signed the first phase of our peace plan. This means that all hostages will be released very soon, and Israeli troops will be withdrawn along the agreed-upon lines as the first step to a lasting, lasting, and lasting peace,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social network.
The US president also added: “This is a great day for the Arab and Muslim world, for Israel, for all its neighbors, and for the United States. We thank the mediators in Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey who worked with us to make this historic and unprecedented event a reality.”
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also participated in the talks in Egypt. The consultations were attended by the prime minister of Qatar and the head of Turkish intelligence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israelis held captive by Hamas would soon return home. “With God’s help, we will bring them all back,” he said in a statement. He promised to convene a cabinet meeting on Thursday to approve the first phase of the Gaza deal.
The White House told reporters that the release of the hostages could begin as early as Monday.
Hamas representatives announced that an “agreement to end the war in Gaza” had been reached and called on Trump to force Israel to implement it fully. In the first phase of the peace plan, Hamas is preparing to release 20 surviving hostages.
