US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas have “both signed” the first phase of the Gaza peace plan.
“This means all hostages will be released immediately and Israel will withdraw its forces to the agreed line as a first step toward a strong, lasting, and everlasting peace,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement came after three days of indirect talks in Egypt mediated by Egyptian, Qatari, Turkish and US officials aimed at ending the two-year conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed that they had reached an agreement.
However, President Trump's post did not clarify other known sticking points in the negotiations, particularly the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.
In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “great day” and added: “We will convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all our precious hostages home.”
Hamas confirmed that the agreement includes Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage and prisoner exchange.
The group also called on President Trump, the guarantor states and other Arab states to compel Israel to “fully implement the requirements of the agreement.”
“Our assessment is that the release of the hostages will begin on Monday,” a senior White House official told the BBC's US news partner CBS.
Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said details would be announced in due course, adding that the agreement “leads to an end to the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners of war, and the entry of aid.”
Hopes that a deal was near were raised early Wednesday when Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended an event with Trump and handed him a memo.
The message appears to ask President Trump to approve a Truth social post about Gaza so that “you can announce first.”
President Trump said the memo lets him know “we are very close to an agreement.” He left the room shortly afterward, saying he had to concentrate on the Middle East.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip's health ministry said Wednesday that at least eight people had died in Israeli fires in the past 24 hours, the lowest death toll reported in the past week.
Two people died while collecting food from an relief distribution center in south-central Gaza, a hospital said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its forces had killed “several terrorists” who tried to attack positions in Gaza City.
Israel launched a military operation in Gaza in response to an attack on October 7, 2023, in which Hamas-led armed groups killed around 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.
Since then, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 67,183 people, including 20,179 children, according to the Gaza Strip Health Ministry. That figure is considered reliable by the United Nations and other international organizations, but Israel disputes it.
The ministry said an additional 460 people have died from malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since starvation was identified in Gaza City by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) in August.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied there is famine in Gaza and said Israel is facilitating the provision of food and other aid.