Hamas will exchange 20 surviving hostages in exchange for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the first phase of a deal to end the war in Gaza, a source in the militant group told AFP. The exchange will take place within 72 hours of the implementation of the agreement. The hostages will be released in exchange for 250 Palestinians sentenced to life in prison and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began on October 7, 2023, the source said. The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire is likely to be signed in Egypt on Thursday.
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The first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is to be signed in Egypt on Thursday at around 0900 GMT, a source with knowledge of the agreement told AFP.
Now US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a US-brokered peace plan to stop fighting in Gaza and release hostages and prisoners, ending the two-year-old war in the Palestinian territory.
Trump announced the outline of his biggest success in months in the two-year war. Trump wrote on social media, “This means that all hostages will be released soon and Israel will withdraw its troops to a certain limit.” “This will be the first step towards a strong, durable and lasting peace.”
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“All parties will be treated fairly,” he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media, “With God’s help, we will bring them all back home.” Hamas said the deal would ensure the withdrawal of Israeli troops, as well as the entry of aid supplies and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Officials familiar with the development told The Associated Press that Hamas plans to release all 20 surviving hostages later this week while Israeli forces begin withdrawing from much of Gaza. Although many questions remain, both sides are closer to ending the war than they have been in months.
The war has killed thousands of Palestinians, destroyed much of Gaza and sparked other armed conflicts in the Middle East. The war sparked worldwide protests and Israel has been widely accused of genocide, which it denies.
Israel is isolated. Despite recent efforts by major Western countries to recognize Palestine, the Palestinians’ dream of an independent state appears further away than ever. The agreement came after several days of talks focused on a Trump-backed peace plan in Egypt.
Trump hopes this will ultimately lead to a permanent end to the war and bring lasting peace to the region. The arrival of Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday for peace talks was a sign that negotiators wanted to delve deeper into the toughest issues of the US plan to end the war.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Netanyahu’s top adviser Ron Dermer were also present at the talks. The war began with an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory military strike killed thousands of Palestinians, devastated Gaza and thrown global politics into turmoil.
More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 170,000 wounded in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry. This will be the third ceasefire since the war started. The first ceasefire was reached in November 2023 in which more than 100 hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners but the ceasefire agreement did not last.
The second ceasefire took place in January and February of the same year. At that time, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and handed over the bodies of eight others in exchange for approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. This agreement also ended with a sudden Israeli bombing in March.