Trump says that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of the peace plan in Gaza – National

American President Donald Trump Wednesday said so Israel and agitation He approved the first phase of it Gaza A peace plan that would see the release of all remaining hostages and Israel withdraw its forces from the Palestinian territories.

“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have signed on to Phase One of our peace plan,” Trump wrote on his website Truth Social.

“This means that all hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw its forces to an agreed-upon line as the first steps towards a strong, lasting and lasting peace. All parties will be treated fairly! This is a great day for the Arab and Islamic world, Israel, all surrounding countries, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, who worked with us to make this a historic event.” An unprecedented event occurs.

Trump concluded his message: “Blessed are the peacemakers!” With his full name and surname.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief statement: “With God’s help, we will return them all to their homeland,” referring to the Israeli hostages in Gaza, in response to Trump’s announcement.

The statement came shortly after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during an unrelated roundtable event, passed Trump a memo on White House stationery that read: “You need to approve the Social Truth post soon so you can announce the deal first.”

It also comes just over two years after Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that led to the military assault on Gaza.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived earlier Wednesday in Sharm El-Sheikh for discussions, as did Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Netanyahu’s senior advisor, Ron Dermer.

Representatives of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were also present, and a delegation from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another fringe armed group holding an unknown number of Israeli hostages, was scheduled to arrive, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Their participation confirms the goal of the talks that include all Palestinian factions.

A Palestinian official said that negotiators made progress on Wednesday on the names of prisoners to be released and guarantees that Israel would not resume fighting if the hostages were released.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak publicly about the negotiations, said Hamas had promised to release all living hostages but would postpone the return of the remains of dead hostages until conditions on the ground in Gaza permitted.

The official did not say which Palestinians Hamas wants Israel to release from prison, adding that the mediators informed both sides that an agreement must be reached by Friday. The official said that President Trump will announce the end of the war as soon as a final agreement is reached.

Two officials from Arab countries said progress had been made in Wednesday’s talks and that an agreement could be reached in the coming days. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Trump’s plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the 48 hostages still held by militants in Gaza since their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which started the war and led to devastating retaliation by Israel. It is believed that about 20 of the hostages are still alive.

The plan envisions Israel withdrawing its forces from Gaza after disarming Hamas, and mobilizing an international security force. The region will be placed under international governance, with Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Wednesday in televised remarks that the negotiations so far “have been very encouraging.”

Netanyahu has already accepted Trump’s plan. His office said on Tuesday that Israel was “cautiously optimistic,” describing the talks as technical negotiations on a plan that both sides have already agreed to.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas reiterated its ongoing demands for a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but said nothing about disarmament, a move it has long resisted. Hamas also spoke out against the idea of ​​international governance, although it agreed that it would have no role in governing Gaza after the war.

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Speaking in Sharm el-Sheikh, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief negotiator, told Egypt’s Cairo TV channel that the movement wants strong guarantees from Trump and the mediators that the war “will not return.” This appears to be his first public appearance since an Israeli raid targeting him and other senior Hamas leaders in Qatar last month killed six people, including his son and his office manager.

In January, the two sides reached a ceasefire that led to the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Under the agreement — which Trump and Witkoff played a key role in brokering — the two sides were then supposed to enter into negotiations on a long-term truce, an Israeli withdrawal and the full release of the hostages.

But Israel violated the ceasefire in March and resumed its bombing campaign and attacks, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Previous rounds of negotiations have often collapsed over the same hurdle, with Hamas demanding guarantees of the war’s end and Netanyahu vowing to keep fighting until the group is destroyed. Trump’s plan attempts to solve all the issues at once, by setting out a disarmament of Hamas and a post-war scenario for governing the region with provisions for a major reconstruction campaign.

In the Hamas-led attack two years ago, militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapping 251. Most of the hostages have since been released under ceasefire or other agreements.

A growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body, have said Israel’s attack on Gaza amounts to genocide – an accusation Israel denies. More than 67,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says about half of those killed were women and children, is part of the Hamas-run government. The United Nations and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

The ministry said on Wednesday that the bodies of 10 people killed in the Israeli raids were transferred to local hospitals during the past 24 hours.

In the Gaza Strip, where much of the territory is in ruins, the Palestinians are in desperate need of a breakthrough. Thousands of people fleeing the recent Israeli ground offensive in northern Gaza and Gaza City have set up makeshift tents along the beach in the central part of the Strip, sometimes using blankets for shelter.

Sarah Rayhan, a displaced woman from Jabalia, said she prays for an end to the war.

She said: “I hope we can return to our places and homes even if there are no homes.” “Being on our land is our greatest happiness.”

AP correspondents Sam Madanek in Tel Aviv, Israel, Bassem Mroueh in Beirut, Lebanon, and Seung Min Kim and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.