Trump says Israel and Hamas signed the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan News of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

US President Donald Trump said that Hamas and Israel agreed on the first phase of his plan for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza and an exchange of prisoners.

“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have signed the first phase of our peace plan,” the US President wrote on his Social Truth platform on Wednesday.

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He added: “All the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw its forces to the agreed-upon line.”

Qatar, the mediator, said that more details of the agreement will be announced later.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari said in a tweet on the X website: “The mediators announce that an agreement has been reached tonight on all the provisions and mechanisms for implementing the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, which will lead to an end to the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid. Details will be announced later.”

The announcement came hours after Trump said negotiations were going “very well” and that he may travel to the Middle East later this week.

“I might go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe Sunday,” he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Senior officials from Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and the United States joined delegations in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday, the third day of talks, as mediators pressed the two sides to resolve their differences over Trump’s 20-point proposal.

The first phase of the plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of 48 Israeli prisoners held in Gaza, including 20 believed to be alive, and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

Hamas provided a list of the names of detainees who will be released as part of the proposed exchange deal.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer – a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – participated in the negotiations on Wednesday.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and longtime key mediator, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman bin Jassim Al Thani, also joined the discussions.

The Hamas delegation includes leaders Khalil al-Hayya and Zaher Jabareen, the two negotiators who survived the attack Israeli assassination attempt In the Qatari capital, Doha, which killed five people last month.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the movement welcomes the participation of the Qatari prime minister and the head of Turkish intelligence, along with the head of Egyptian intelligence, in the current round of talks.

He said that their participation gives the negotiations a “strong impetus” towards achieving positive results on ending the war and facilitating the exchange of prisoners.

A delegation from the armed Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement is scheduled to arrive in Egypt to participate in the indirect talks, according to a statement issued by the movement.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip, and is currently holding some Israeli prisoners.

For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that the mediated negotiations had achieved “significant progress” and that a ceasefire would be declared if they reached a positive result.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s chief political analyst, says the talks remain tense with “some serious disagreements”, with crucial details yet to be worked out – including the timing and extent of the Israeli withdrawal, the formation of the post-war administration in the Gaza Strip, and the fate of Hamas.

“It can be said that the initial stage of the initial stage is going well,” Bishara said. According to him, the two sides seem to agree on “some kind of criteria” for the exchange of prisoners and prisoners.

Bishara said: “According to the plan… after Hamas hands over the prisoners, the war must end.” “Israel says no, the war will not end until Hamas is disarmed.”

Israeli attacks continue

Even as the talks progressed on Wednesday, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that at least eight Palestinians were martyred across Gaza during the past 24 hours. She added that at least 61 others were injured in the attacks.

The Gaza government media office said in a statement on Wednesday that Israel carried out 271 air and artillery strikes during the past five days despite calls from the United States to stop the bombing. The attacks targeted densely populated areas and shelters for displaced people across the Strip, killing 126 civilians, including women and children – 75 of them in Gaza City alone.

Al Jazeera’s Tariq Abu Azoum, reporting from Zawaida in central Gaza, said the situation on the ground “appears very bleak” as Israeli drones continue to target residential buildings, especially in Gaza City.

Abu Azoum said: “Civilians said that the scale of the bombing seemed less severe compared to the days before the start of the current round of negotiations.”

He added: “They say this may be a sign that the mediators are putting more pressure on Israel to at least reduce the scale of its bombing of Gaza for one reason: to allow Hamas fighters to recover the bodies of Israeli prisoners as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.”

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has warned that only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, and only a third of the 176 primary care facilities are operational.

Hanan Balkhi, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said Gaza suffers from “severe shortages” of electricity, clean water and medicines, in addition to broken equipment and damaged infrastructure in those health facilities that are still operating.

“Some facilities were bombed, rehabilitated, and then bombed again,” she said.

The genocide committed by Israel in Gaza killed more than 67,000 people, according to health authorities, and destroyed large areas of land in the Strip, from which nearly two million people were forcibly displaced.