Israel and Hamas agreed Wednesday to the first phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, a step that sets in motion the release of all remaining Israeli hostages, a pullback of Israeli forces to defensive positions, and a resumption of humanitarian aid to the devastated Palestinian territory.
Once all hostages have been returned, Israel is to release 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, as well as 1,700 Gazans who were detained during the fighting in Gaza.
Agreement by the two warring parties after months of tense negotiations and near-deals raises hopes that a war that was sparked by Hamas’ deadly – and for Israel traumatizing – attack two years ago this week will finally be brought to a close.
Why We Wrote This
Agreement by the two warring parties in Gaza after months of tense negotiations and near-deals brought widespread relief, raising hopes that a war that was sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack will finally be brought to a close.
The war, Israel’s longest, catalyzed related Israeli conflicts with Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon and with Iran itself, reordering the Middle East’s strategic balance and leaving the Jewish state the undisputed military power in the region.
But it also left Israel isolated and even disdained internationally to a degree it has never known in its nearly 80 years of existence.
After suffering the devastation of an air war the intensity of which the world has not known since World War II, Gaza is now the flattened gravesite of more than 67,000 Palestinians, the Gaza Health Ministry says, more than 20,000 of them children.
Nevertheless, announcement of the agreement brought widespread relief and celebration, including among Israelis and Palestinians who had stayed up late to monitor the news of progress being made at the mediated Israel-Hamas talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Nevertheless, announcement of the agreement brought widespread relief and celebration, including among Israelis and Palestinians who had stayed up late to monitor the news of progress being made at the mediated Israel-Hamas talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America,” Mr. Trump said in announcing the deal in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening. The agreement reached by negotiating parties in Egypt represents “the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” he enthused.
Yet as significant and heartening for the people of Israel and of Gaza as the phase one agreement certainly is, it is still not an accord on the full 20-point peace plan Mr. Trump laid out late last month.
Yet to be tackled are the thorny issues of Hamas’ disarmament – without which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahu has said the assault on Gaza will not end – and Gaza’s postwar governance.
As the White House said this week, the hope is that the carrying out of the peace plan’s phase one will provide the momentum for moving on to the remaining difficult issues.
In the meantime, Israel was already preparing to receive the first of the remaining living hostages (the plan also calls for the return of the bodies of deceased hostages) as early as Saturday.
And speculation was rising late Wednesday that President Trump, a hero to many Israeli hostage families, could be on hand when the first group of hostages return home.
As reports multiplied that a phase-one deal was in the offing, Mr. Trump announced at the White House Wednesday that he could travel to the region as early as Saturday. A president who craves the global spotlight could not be expected to miss the opportunity to bask in the admiration and recognition to be showered on him for a historic and region-altering deal that carries his name.
