U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion about the anti-fascist movement Antifa, which he has designated as a domestic terrorist organization, at the official dining room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2025.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
US President Donald Trump announced in the US on Wednesday night that Israel and Hamas had agreed on the first phase of a peace plan that could end their two-year war and potentially release hostages.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said, “All hostages will be released immediately and Israel will withdraw its forces to agreed upon fronts as a first step toward a strong, lasting, and everlasting peace. All parties will be treated fairly!”
The preliminary agreement was confirmed by Israeli officials, Hamas and mediator Qatar.
Majid al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Qatari prime minister, said in a post on X that an agreement had been reached on “all conditions and mechanisms to implement the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement leading to a cessation of the war, the release of Israeli detainees and Palestinian prisoners of war, and the entry of aid,” according to CNBC’s Arabic translation of his post. Details will be announced later, he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked President Trump on X and said, “If the first phase of the plan is approved, all the hostages will be returned home. This is a diplomatic success and a national and moral victory for the State of Israel.”
According to Reuters, an Israeli government spokesperson said the release of hostages would begin on Saturday. President Trump said in an interview with Fox News that he expected the hostages to be released “probably” within the United States on Monday.
Hamas confirmed the details in a separate statement. “We highly value the efforts of the intermediaries in Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. We also appreciate the efforts of US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a definitive end to the war and a complete withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip,” the group said.
It remained unclear whether the parties had made progress on more contentious issues, such as whether Hamas would agree to demilitarize, as President Trump had demanded, and how governance of the war-torn Gaza Strip would be handled.
The deal, reached after several days of negotiations in Egypt, is expected to see the release of about 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. President Trump expressed optimism about the progress of the situation, saying on the same day that he was considering a visit to the Middle East within the next few days.
President Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the war in Gaza, announced last month, calls for “a process of demilitarization of Gaza, including the permanent emplacement of unusable weapons through an agreed decommissioning process.”
The plan calls for Gaza to be ruled under “temporary transitional governance by a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian commission responsible for public services for Gazans and the day-to-day running of the municipality.”
The Gaza war began in October 2023 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Since then, Israeli retaliatory operations have killed more than 67,000 people, devastated much of the Gaza Strip, and plunged the Middle East into crisis.
