GAZA CITY: President Donald Trump announced last night that the “first phase” of the plan to end the conflict in Gaza had been agreed to. It includes a pause in fighting and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Trump said he is planning to travel to Egypt for an official signing of the ceasefire deal during opening remarks at his White House Cabinet meeting.
The Israeli Cabinet is meeting to vote on whether to approve the deal, with a ceasefire taking effect “within 24 hours.” Scenes from Gaza of devastation and hunger, as well as a famine declaration, have prompted outrage around the world and left Israel isolated diplomatically.
The White House said that it expects hostages to be released Monday. Forty-eight hostages remain to be returned, of whom Israel says it believes 20 are still alive.
The agreement comes almost two years to the day after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people. Since then, more than 67,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
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.
During Trump’s opening remarks at his White House Cabinet meeting, the president said that he is planning to travel to Egypt for an official signing of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
Trump said they’re going to get the hostages back from Gaza “on Monday or Tuesday.”
“I’m going to try and make a trip over. We’re going to try and get over there, and we’re working on the timing, the exact timing,” he said. “We’re going to go to Egypt, where we’ll have a signing, an additional signing, and we’ve already had a signing.”
Trump said yesterday that he was likely to travel to Israel on Sunday, though he suggested the timing was fluid.
Negotiators met this week in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which has mediated the talks, which led to the announcement of the agreement yesterday.
The Israeli security Cabinet meeting has started, according to an official Israeli source. Following this, a wider government meeting will convene to decide on Trump’s ceasefire and hostage deal.
Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Netanyahu’s office, previously told reporters that a ceasefire would take effect in Gaza “within 24 hours” of the Cabinet meeting.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff told NBC News he has landed in Israel and plans to visit Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.
Since the Oct. 7 attacks, families of people taken captive by Hamas have encamped in a public plaza in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N. and its partners can move now to scale up the delivery of food, water, medical assistance and shelter supplies.
But the U.N. chief said “to turn this ceasefire into real progress, we need more than the silencing of the guns.”
Guterres called for safe access for humanitarian workers, the removal of red tape and other impediments, the rebuilding of Gaza’s shattered infrastructure and funding to meet the immense needs.
The secretary-general told U.N. reporters in New York that the “glimmer of relief” for Israelis and Palestinians must be seized to establish a political path toward ending Israel’s occupation and achieving a two-state solution.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met today with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to el-Sissi’s spokesman.
The spokesman said el-Sissi welcomed the Gaza ceasefire agreement and said in a statement that Egypt “appreciates and supports President Trump’s efforts to end conflicts and bring peace to the Middle East and the entire world,” while Witkoff and Kushner “reiterated the United States’ appreciation for the pivotal role played by Egypt in ending the war and restoring stability to the region.”
El-Sissi said he hoped to receive President Trump in Egypt “to witness the signing of this historic agreement in a ceremony befitting the occasion.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has joined calls for President Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure peace between Israel and Hamas by posting a seemingly AI-generated image on his office’s official X account.
“Give @realDonaldTrump the Nobel Peace Prize — he deserves it!” the X post reads, alongside the AI image of Netanyahu hanging an oversized Nobel medal around Trump’s neck. The two men are surrounded by applauding officials while confetti falls in the background.
Trump has suggested on numerous occasions that he deserves to win the prestigious prize, which will be awarded tomorrow in Norway.
Trump’s determination will make it difficult for either Israel or Hamas to derail the deal to halt the war in Gaza and release the hostages, a Palestinian academic close to negotiators told NBC News.
“With President Trump being as intent as he is to follow through with this agreement and using this agreement as a stepping stone toward the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nothing is going to stand in Trump’s way. Nothing,” said Bishara Bahbah, who is also a businessman and activist and is close to the hostage negotiators.
Bahbah noted that while Hamas has agreed to participate in the hostage and prisoner exchange under the agreement, it has not said it will disarm and disband, a key stipulation of Trump’s proposal. “I think the disarmament issue has been deferred for the next phase and the negotiations could begin probably next week on those,” he said.
He added that he believed the possibility of some of the “big names,” or more well-known Palestinian figures imprisoned by Israel, being released as part of the plan “might be deferred to the next phase,” adding: “The red line for Israel is going to be those who have planned and executed Oct. 7.”
Israeli Prime Minister’s Office spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told reporters that a ceasefire would take effect in Gaza “within 24 hours” of a Cabinet meeting due to take place at 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET).
Following that 24-hour period, a 72-hour window would open in which Hamas would release the remaining hostages.
Bedrosian said the final draft of phase one of the plan was signed in Egypt this morning.
Bedrosian said that Netanyahu had a “warm conversation” with Trump this morning in which both leaders congratulated each other on a “historic achievement.”
Source: NBC News
