Israel and Hamas ceasefire deal could see hostages released soon

President Donald Trump’s announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal^[1] was widely welcomed Thursday^[2] by world leaders, the families of hostages and Palestinians who have endured more than two years of war.

But huge questions remain about whether Trump’s 20-point plan^[3] can successfully resolve the long-term future of the Gaza Strip^[4], with uncertainty over its directive for Hamas to disband, as well as the governance of the shattered enclave.

The plan, which was mediated by Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, will also need formal agreement at 5 p.m. local time Thursday (10 a.m. ET) by Israel’s government, an Israel official briefed on the matter told NBC News. That does not appear a sure thing, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich^[5] vowing to vote against it.

A spokesperson for the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a ceasefire would then take effect 24 hours after the Cabinet had agreed on the deal and hostages would be released after 72 hours.

While approval of a ceasefire agreement appeared imminent, explosions were seen and heard in southern Gaza on Thursday morning.

Trump said Wednesday on social media that the sides had taken the “first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace,”^[6] calling it “a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding nations, and the United States of America.”

During his opening remarks at his White House Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump said he plans to travel to Egypt for an official signing of the deal.

Trump said hostages will be released “on Monday or Tuesday.”

Among those to welcome the announcement was United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who urged “all concerned to abide fully by the terms of the agreement” and described it as a “momentous opportunity” to recognize “the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “praised the great efforts made by President Trump and all mediators to reach this agreement.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had “a very moving and warm conversation” with Trump in which they “congratulated each other on the historic achievement of signing the agreement to release all the hostages,” his office said in a statement.

“If indeed this deal can hold, it’ll bring in an era of peace that we haven’t seen now in the Middle East for several years, ever since that terrible attack on Oct. 7,” Col. Steve Warren, former principal deputy chief of public affairs at the Pentagon, told NBC News on Wednesday.

The plan could come with a political cost for Netanyahu inside Israel. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, said Thursday on X that his party will “bring down the government” unless Hamas is “dismantled.”

Celebrations and cautious optimism

The announcement came after indirect talks involving Israel, Hamas and Steve Witkoff, U.S. ambassador at large, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump announced the breakthrough one day after the second anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and another 250 were kidnapped, and the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in which more than 67,000 people — mostly women and children — have been killed, according to local health officials.

While many governments defended Israel’s initial right to respond to the attack, the scale of civilian death and suffering wrought by its war have drawn increasing international condemnation and isolation for the Jewish state. Last month, the United Kingdom became the latest Western nation to recognize Palestine as a state, joining a majority of countries that now do so worldwide.

Much of Gaza is now a rubble-strewn wasteland, with most of its buildings damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N. And the world’s leading body on hunger, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, has declared that a famine is now playing out inside the cramped territory.

Israel’s military operation has been deemed a genocide by a U.N. commission of inquiry, the world-leading International Association of Genocide Scholars, and human rights groups such as Amnesty International. Israel denies the charge, saying it is only attempting to destroy Hamas, which it blames for putting Palestinians in harm’s way.

After news arrived that the first ceasefire phase had been agreed to, some Palestinians on the ground inside Gaza were celebrating — cheering, dancing and singing, video showed.

The first phase of Trump’s deal would see the return of the remaining 48 hostages, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive, while the Israeli military said it was poised to withdraw from Gaza to an agreed-upon line.

Trump told reporters that while the administration knows where most of the hostages believed to be alive are, finding the bodies of deceased hostages could be a “bigger problem.”

An international force tasked with finding missing hostages in the Gaza Strip will be established as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal, Israeli broadcaster i24 reported, citing Israeli officials.

There were celebrations in “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv early Thursday, the culmination of two years in which families and friends of the remaining captives have angrily campaigned for their government to prioritize their loved ones over the continuation of the conflict.

They could be heard in video chanting “Nobel prize to Trump” — a reference to Trump’s long-standing ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize^[7], which is being announced Friday.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of Israeli hostages, said its members were feeling “a mix of excitement, anticipation, and concern” at the news. It expressed its “profound gratitude to President Trump and his team for the leadership and determination that led to this historic breakthrough: an end to the war and a comprehensive agreement to return all the hostages.”

Ruby Chen, father of hostage Itay Chen, a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen, said on “Stay Tuned NOW” that while he shared this cautious hope, the captors had not “provided any sign of life” for his son.

Lasting agreement unclear

While Hamas has agreed to participate in the hostage and prisoner exchange, it has not said it will disarm and disband — a key stipulation of Trump’s proposal.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday that no Palestinians would surrender their weapons, though he did not explain whether that was the group’s official position.

Prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti^[8], whose supporters dub the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela,” will not be released as part of a ceasefire agreement, Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told reporters Thursday.

The first phase also does not address Gaza’s medium- and long-term future. Trump’s plan says the enclave should be temporarily governed by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” overseen by a “Board of Peace” led by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. That is until the Palestinian Authority, the chief political organ in the region, can be “reformed.”

The Israel Defense Forces said it was moving to “adjusted deployment lines soon” but warned that parts of Gaza were “still considered a dangerous combat zone” and that its troops were “deployed and operating anywhere in the Strip.”

Israel shattered the previous ceasefire^[9] — which lasted from Jan. 19 to March 18 — by launching a barrage of deadly airstrikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, ending two months of relative calm and plunging Gaza into a renewed humanitarian crisis.

Israel blamed Hamas for the resumption of hostilities, citing the militant group’s refusal to meet Israel’s demand^[10] to release more hostages.