Israel and Hamas have agreed to the \u201cfirst phase\u201d of his peace plan to pause fighting and release at least some hostages and prisoners, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cAll Parties will be treated fairly!\u201d<\/p>\n
Negotiators have been meeting in Egypt for days to hash out a Trump-backed peace plan that he hopes will ultimately result in a permanent end to the two-year war and bring about a sustainable peace in the region.<\/p>\n
The initial agreement was confirmed by Israeli officials and Hamas, as well as mediator Qatar. It was not immediately clear whether the parties had made any progress on thornier questions about the future of the conflict, including whether Hamas will demilitarize, as Trump has demanded, and eventual governance of the war-torn territory.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media, \u201cWith God\u2019s help we will bring them all home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The war began with Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, many of them civilians. Israel\u2019s retaliatory military campaign has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, devastated Gaza and upended global politics.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he\u2019s considering a trip to the Middle East within a matter of days, a major show of optimism as top officials from the U.S. and Qatar traveled to an Egyptian resort for the third day of ongoing negotiations to end the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may go there sometime toward the end of the week,\u201d Trump said from the White House as he opened a roundtable event on a different matter. The trip could occur Sunday, Trump said, adding that \u201cnegotiations are going along very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet another hint of a deal came later in that event when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed Trump a note on White House stationery that read, \u201cYou need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.\u201d Truth Social is the president\u2019s preferred social media platform.<\/p>\n
The note prompted Trump to proclaim, \u201cWe\u2019re very close to a deal in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arrival of Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on Wednesday at Sharm el-Sheikh for the discussions, as well as Qatar\u2019s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, was a sign that negotiators aim to dive deeply into the toughest issues of an American plan to end the war in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s top adviser, Ron Dermer, is also present for the talks.<\/p>\n
Hamas says it\u2019s seeking firm guarantees from mediators that Israel won\u2019t resume its military campaign in the Palestinian territory after the militant group releases all the remaining hostages.<\/p>\n
All sides have expressed optimism for a deal to end the two-year war that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and most of the Gaza Strip destroyed. But key parts of the peace plan still haven\u2019t been agreed to, including a requirement that Hamas disarm, the timing and extent of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and the creation of an international body to run the territory after Hamas steps down.<\/p>\n
Representatives for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were also in attendance, and a delegation from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another fringe militant group that holds an unknown number of Israeli hostages, were scheduled to arrive, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren\u2019t authorized to speak to the media. Their participation underscores the aim of the talks to encompass all Palestinian groups.<\/p>\n
A Palestinian official said negotiators made headway Wednesday on the names of prisoners who will be released and on guarantees that Israel won\u2019t resume fighting if the hostages are released.<\/p>\n
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn\u2019t allowed to speak publicly about the negotiations, said Hamas promised to release all living hostages but would postpone returning the remains of dead hostages until conditions on the ground in Gaza permits.<\/p>\n
The official wouldn\u2019t say which Palestinians Hamas wants Israel to release from jail, adding that mediators informed both sides that a deal must be reached by this Friday. The official said President Trump would declare an end to the war once a final deal is reached.<\/p>\n
Two officials from Arab countries said progress was made in Wednesday\u2019s talks and that a deal could be reached in the coming days. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s peace plan<\/p>\n
The Trump plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and release of the 48 hostages that militants in Gaza still hold from their attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that started the war and triggered Israel\u2019s devastating retaliation. Around 20 of the hostages are believed to still be alive.<\/p>\n
It envisions Israel withdrawing its troops from Gaza after Hamas disarms, and an international security force moving in. The territory would be placed under international governance, with Trump and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it.<\/p>\n
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Wednesday in televised comments that the negotiations so far \u201cwere very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu has already accepted Trump\u2019s plan. His office said Tuesday that Israel was \u201ccautiously optimistic,\u201d framing the talks as technical negotiations over a plan that both sides already had approved.<\/p>\n
In a statement Tuesday, Hamas reiterated its longstanding demands for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but said nothing about disarmament, a step it has long resisted. Hamas has also spoken against the idea of international rule, though it has agreed it will have no role in governing post-war Gaza.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Sharm el-Sheikh, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas\u2019 top negotiator, told Egypt\u2019s Qahera TV that the group wanted solid guarantees from Trump and mediators that the war \u201cwill not return.\u201d It appeared to be his first public appearance since an Israeli strike targeting him and other top Hamas leaders in Qatar last month killed six people, including his son and office manager.<\/p>\n
In January, the two sides had a ceasefire that brought the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Under the agreement \u2014 which Trump and Witkoff played a major role in brokering \u2014 the two sides were then supposed to enter negotiations over a long-term truce, an Israeli withdrawal and a full hostage release.<\/p>\n
But Israel broke the ceasefire in March, resuming its campaign of bombardment and offensives, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas for the remaining hostage releases.<\/p>\n
Past rounds of negotiations have frequently fallen apart over the same obstacle, with Hamas demanding assurances of the war\u2019s end and Netanyahu vowing to keep fighting until the group is destroyed. The Trump plan attempts to resolve all the issues at once, by laying out Hamas disarmament and a post-war scenario for governing the territory with provisions for a major reconstruction campaign.<\/p>\n
Praying for a deal
\nIn the Hamas-led attack two years ago, militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Most hostages have since been released in ceasefires or other deals.<\/p>\n
A growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said that Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide \u2014 an accusation Israel denies. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 wounded, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n
The ministry, which doesn\u2019t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of the deaths 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.<\/p>\n
The ministry said Wednesday that the bodies of 10 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n
In the Gaza Strip, where much of the territory lies in ruins, Palestinians are desperate for a breakthrough. Thousands fleeing Israel\u2019s latest ground offensive in northern Gaza and Gaza City have set up makeshift tents along the beach in the central part of the territory, sometimes using blankets for shelter.<\/p>\n
Sara Rihan, a displaced woman from Jabaliya, said she was praying for an end to the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope we return to our places and homes even if there are no homes,\u201d she said. \u201cOur existence in our land is the biggest happiness for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: AP
\n–Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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