Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first phase” of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the devastating war in Gaza, which unleashed the deadliest fighting ever between Israelis and Palestinians.
After two years of bloodshed, large majorities in Israel and the Palestinian territories welcome the end of the brutal conflict with satisfaction. Some people stayed up until the early hours of the morning awaiting the ceasefire announcement, which came around 2 a.m. Others woke up to the news on a rainy morning. The deal brought relief, hope, joy, and celebrations on both sides after two years of agony.
However, for some, the pain of the war is still recent.
A man in Gaza, Abu Ahmed Eid, told NPR: “What exactly should I be happy about with all the blood spilled and all these martyrs?”
Eid said that, like most Gaza residents, he lives in a tent with his children. He said he lost 150 members of his extended family in Israeli attacks.
In Israel, Rotem Cooper said his father was a hostage who died in captivity. He now awaits the return of his father’s body. Cooper believes that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sabotaged earlier negotiations that could have ended the war sooner and perhaps led to his father’s return while he was still alive. Cooper credited President Trump with closing the deal.
“It’s President Trump,” he said. “It didn’t happen because of something the Israeli government or the prime minister did. It happened despite what the prime minister did.”
Since Israel and Hamas do not speak directly, the indirect negotiations were mediated by President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.
The parties held negotiations all day on Wednesday, which extended into the early hours of Thursday at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israel’s cabinet planned to vote on the ceasefire deal on Thursday night. The deal is expected to be approved, which would bring an immediate end to the shootings in Gaza. And already this weekend, Hamas could begin releasing the last 48 hostages. Twenty are still believed to be alive. All are men, many are Israeli soldiers in their 20s.
Hamas indicated it may not be able to locate some of the dead hostages immediately. The Israeli official in charge of hostages, Gal Hirsch, said an international team will be formed to locate the bodies of the unaccounted-for hostages in the coming days.
In exchange, Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. They include Palestinians convicted of murder and other serious crimes, as well as those held without formal charges during the war.
President Trump announced the deal on Truth Social on Wednesday night.
“This means that ALL Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw its Troops to an agreed line as the first steps toward a Strong, Lasting, and Eternal Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all Neighboring Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event possible. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”
A few hours earlier, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was prepared to travel to the Middle East already this weekend.
Netanyahu said he spoke with Trump by phone, describing the conversation as “very emotional and warm.” Netanyahu also invited Trump to address Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
As outlined by Trump last week, key elements of the deal require Hamas to disarm and give up a future role in Gaza’s governance, the small coastal territory devastated by the fighting. However, Hamas has not stated that it will do so.
Israel will be required to pull back some of its troops from cities and other deep areas inside Gaza but will maintain a military presence in the territory for now. Israeli forces will withdraw to a buffer zone on Gaza’s edges as the ceasefire solidifies and peace takes hold.
However, the precise details and overall timeline of these key provisions were not immediately clear.
For now, the focus is on the initial steps required of both sides.
According to a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Israel must begin its initial troop withdrawal 24 hours after the ceasefire is approved by the Israeli cabinet. Hamas will then have 72 hours to release the hostages. “Our assessment is that the hostages will begin to be released on Monday,” the White House official said.
The deal marks a major breakthrough after multiple failed attempts — and two previous ceasefires that collapsed. A truce reached in January this year unraveled in March, when Israel renewed an offensive in Gaza. A ceasefire in the early days of the war, in November 2023, lasted only a week before collapsing.
The broad international effort built widespread support for the latest ceasefire and raised hopes that this one will last.
However, the ceasefire deal will be implemented in multiple phases over the weeks and months ahead, with no guarantee of success.
In a statement, Hamas senior leader Mahmoud Mardawi made clear that the group did not believe it had lost the war.
“The ceasefire deal is not a favor from anyone, but rather the fruit of our people’s legendary resistance,” he said. “Gaza — the cemetery of invaders — was victorious through its resistance and unity, imposing its will on the arrogant enemy.”
In Israel, a far-right member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, Bezalel Smotrich, said he would not support the deal.
He wrote on X that he felt “immense joy at the return of all our kidnapped brothers!”
But he also said he felt “great fear of the consequences of emptying prisons and releasing the next generation of terror leadership, who will do everything to continue spilling rivers of Jewish blood, God forbid. For this reason alone, we cannot join the short-term celebrations and vote for the deal.”
The war began with a surprise Hamas attack in southern Israel in the early hours of October 7, 2023. Nearly 1,200 people were killed, mostly Israeli civilians, including many who were attending a weekend music festival. It was the worst one-day attack on Israel since the country’s founding in 1948.
Israel launched a fierce response that took the lives of more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Israel’s sustained bombing campaign and relentless ground offensives leveled most homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses in Gaza. Israel restricted aid to Gaza throughout the conflict, leading to desperate shortages of food and medicine.
Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people was repeatedly displaced during the war, with most residents now crowded into tent camps in the southern part of the territory, near the Egyptian border.
The end of the fighting should lead to rapid increases in the supply of food and other basic necessities.
But rebuilding homes, roads, water systems, and electricity will be a project that will take many years.
And while the end of the war may now be within reach, there is no clear roadmap for resolving the issue of Palestinian political rights.
The plan calls for Hamas to step aside after nearly two decades ruling Gaza. It envisions “qualified Palestinians and international experts” forming a transitional governance committee. In addition, an international “Peace Council,” chaired by Trump, would oversee the committee and monitor Gaza’s reconstruction.
On the critical issue of a Palestinian state, the plan offers a vague call for a “credible path to self-determination and a Palestinian state,” but provides no details.
Meanwhile, Israel emerged from the war in a much stronger security position after decimating Hamas in Gaza, striking Hezbollah in Lebanon, and bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.
However, Israel was isolated internationally by the way it conducted the war in Gaza, causing so many civilian casualties, restricting humanitarian aid, and damaging much of the territory’s infrastructure.
Daniel Estrin, Carrie Kahn, and Itay Stern of NPR reported from Tel Aviv. Aya Batrawy reported from Dubai, and Anas Baba from Gaza.
Source: npr.org by Greg Myre