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Israel army says preparing to pull back troops in Gaza as part of deal
The Israeli military said on Thursday it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza after Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire deal to free the remaining hostages.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the military said in a statement:
The [Israel Defense Forces] IDF has begun operational preparations ahead of the implementation of the agreement.
As part of this process, preparations and a combat protocol are under way to transition to adjusted deployment lines soon.
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Hamas will release 20 living hostages in one go as part of the first phase of the deal, according to a source close to the Hamas negotiating team, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners: 250 among those serving life sentences, and 1,700 others detained since the start of the war, a top Hamas official within the group told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
There has been no indication that Israel will disclose the names of those set for release, reports AFP.
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement to secure the release of hostages would only take effect after receiving cabinet approval. Netanyahu’s office said:
Contrary to Arab media reports, the 72-hour countdown will begin only after the agreement is approved in the cabinet meeting, which is expected in the evening hours.
Of the 251 people abducted during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, militants still hold 47 in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Turkey will take part in a joint taskforce – alongside Israel, the United States, Qatar and Egypt – that will be established to locate the bodies of deceased hostages in Gaza whose locations are unknown, a senior Turkish official said on Thursday.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) on Thursday welcomed the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and said it was ready to flood Gaza with desperately needed food.
News that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire “is a huge relief”, Unrwa commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said on X.
The agreement follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US president Donald Trump, under which Israel should withdraw from the Gaza Strip and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages.
This “will bring respite to people who survived the worst bombardment, displacement, loss and grief for two long years”, Lazzarini said, hailing that “after their excruciating ordeal, hostages and Palestinian detainees will finally join their families”.
The Unrwa commissioner general said his agency had “food, medicines [and] other basic supplies ready to go to Gaza”, where the UN has said famine is spreading. He added:
We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months.
Israel has accused Unrwa of bias and of being “riddled with Hamas operatives”, and earlier this year barred it from operating on Israeli territory.
Unrwa has said it still has 12,000 staff inside Gaza, and Lazzarini insisted on Thursday that the agency’s teams there were “crucial for the implementation of this agreement, including to provide basic services like healthcare and education”.
“There are over 660,000 children who are eagerly waiting to go back to school,” he said, stressing that Unrwa teachers stand ready to help them fulfil that”. Lazzarini said:
I call on all member states to support Unrwa to do its work to assist people in need in the coming critical period.
The Kremlin on Thursday welcomed a Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas but said the key would be to see how the deal was implemented, reports Reuters.
Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to the first phase of US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, a ceasefire and hostage release deal that could be a first step toward ending the two-year-old war.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Interfax as saying:
We certainly support these efforts. It cannot but cause general satisfaction that a ceasefire in Gaza is already being established. All these efforts can be welcomed.
We hope that the signatures will be delivered today, and then actions will follow to implement the agreements reached.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the situation in the Middle East, including Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict in a phone call on Monday, reports Reuters.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that Trump’s plan was “the best solution we have on the table” and “gave hope”, though it mentioned “statehood” in rather vague terms and not in regard to the West Bank.
Lavrov said that the west shared responsibility for stalling United Nations decisions on Palestinian statehood which he said “would come later.” Lavrov said:
Our western colleagues must also bear their share of responsibility for having played a key role in stalling the implementation of the decisions on creating an independent Palestine on the West Bank and in Gaza.
The Palestinian issue, which remains unresolved for nearly 80 years now, is the main factor fueling extremism in the Middle East.
Seperately, the United Arab Emirates welcomed on Thursday the agreement on the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire framework, urging all parties to abide by its terms, the foreign ministry said.
Gaza aid plan will fail without full access for humanitarian groups, warns Norwegian Refugee Council
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), one of the largest independent aid groups working in Gaza, said US president Donald Trump’s plan to increase aid to starving people as part of a ceasefire will fail unless all aid groups can resume operations.
Jan Egeland, NRC head, told Reuters in an interview via video link from Oslo:
The desperation is deeper and the exhaustion is greater than anyone can imagine inside Gaza … It’s not enough with some UN agencies and some few NGOs.
If not, the Trump peace plan will not succeed … We don’t have time for more bureaucratic obstacles.
Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday rejoiced after Trump announced that a ceasefire and hostage deal was reached under the first phase of his plan to end the two-year war in Gaza.
Egeland said the NRC, among other international NGOs, had been blocked from bringing aid into Gaza since Israel lifted its 11-week blockade on supplies in May.
Israel has said there is no limit on quantities of food aid entering Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing aid, accusations the Palestinian militant group denies. Cogat, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, did not immediately reply to Reuters request for comment.
Trump’s 20-point plan includes allowing “full aid” to be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip, and for water infrastructure and bakeries to be restored in the territory, where some areas are experiencing famine.
The NRC is resubmitting a request to get hundreds of truckloads of lifesaving aid into Gaza, which had been denied access for months.
Egeland called for all border crossings to be re-opened, after the closure of the Zikim and Allenby crossings and emphasised the urgent need for tents and tarpaulins to shelter Palestinians in Gaza as winter approaches.
Reuters has some reaction to news of the ceasefire plan from on the ground in Gaza and Israel.
“Thank God for the ceasefire, the end of bloodshed and killing,” Abdul Majeed Abd Rabbo told the news agency, from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He added:
I am not the only one happy, all of the Gaza Strip is happy, all the Arab people, all of the world is happy with the ceasefire and the end of bloodshed.
Einav Zaugauker, whose son Matan is one of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, rejoiced in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t explain what I’m feeling … it’s crazy,” she said, speaking in the red glow of a celebratory flare. She added:
What do I say to him? What do I do? Hug and kiss him. Just tell him that I love him, that’s it. And to see his eyes sink into mine … It’s overwhelming – this is the relief.
Still, Gaza residents said Israeli strikes on three Gaza City suburbs continued overnight and in the morning hours of Thursday. Reuters reports that lines of smoke rose over Shejaia, Tuffah and Zeitoun in the early hours of Thursday, though there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Gaza health ministry said at least nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours.
Foreign ministers from Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Jordan along with the EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas have been invited to a summit in Paris today convened by French foreign minister Jean Noël Barrot to discuss the Gaza ceasefire plan.
Press statements are expected at 4.30pm CET (2.30pm GMT/3.30pm BST).
Israel says Gaza deal to take effect only after receiving cabinet approval
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that an agreement to secure the release of hostages in Gaza will take effect only after receiving cabinet approval, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement:
Contrary to Arab media reports, the 72-hour countdown will begin only after the agreement is approved in the cabinet meeting, which is expected in the evening hours.
US president Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a Gaza deal involving the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, with the swap to occur within 72 hours of the deal’s implementation.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday welcomed the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and said it hoped it would lead to peace after two years of devastating war.
Saudi Arabia hopes “this important step will lead to urgent action to alleviate the humanitarian suffering … achieve a full Israeli withdrawal, restore security and stability, and initiate practical steps to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution”, a foreign ministry statement said.
Here are some more images being shared on the newswires today:
Israel says cabinet to meet on Thursday to discuss 'plan for the release of all Israeli hostages' in Gaza
Israel’s cabinet will meet on Thursday at 3pm GMT to discuss a plan to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza, a government statement said after US president Donald Trump announced a ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
An announcement posted on the Israeli government website said:
Government meeting at 18:00 (1500 GMT). Agenda – Plan for the release of all Israeli hostages.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced overnight that he would be convening a cabinet meeting Thursday to approve a plan for the release of hostages.
Patrick Wintour
Diplomats from the US, Canada, Europe and Arab states are gathering in Paris today for a meeting that will focus on the implementation of the “day after” plans set out by the UN, which are separate and different from US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza.
The talks in Egypt have largely been focused on the prisoner and hostage releases, but the discussions in Paris have focused on other issues including the Hamas handover of weapons, its exclusion from future administrations, the mandate of an international peacekeeping force, the delivery of resumed aid flows and any future relationship between Gaza and the West Bank as the nucleus of a future Palestinian state. On almost all these issues there are deep differences between Israel and the US on the one hand and Europe and the Arab states on the other.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, will now not attend the Paris meeting – something blamed on the US government shutdown. Other US officials will attend.
European leaders are anxious that, as in the case of Ukraine, they are not squeezed out of the talks, and they are involved in the second phase of the peace plan about the political and institutional backdrop to the reconstruction of Gaza.
At the centre of the discussions about Gaza’s future is former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who is due to sit on Trump’s “Board of Peace” or interim government that will oversee a group of technocrats that help implement reconstruction plans.
Arab leaders are want the international stabilisation force to have a UN security council mandate, and there is a clear plan to treat Gaza and the West Bank as one political entity.
One of the most difficult issues is the timing of the hand-over of weapons by Hamas, including the body to which the weapons are handed, and whether personal weapons will be included. Amnesties may be granted to those that disavow violence.
Hamas may be willing to supply weapons to an Arab run ISF, but not to Israel. Work is also under way on a revised constitution and elections for the Palestinian Authority, the heavily criticised political entity based in the West Bank opposed to the Islamist Hamas in Gaza.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews president Phil Rosenberg has reacted to the news that Hamas and Israel have agreed to the ‘first phase’ of a plan to pause fighting and release some hostages and prisoners.
In a statement released on Thursday, Rosenberg said:
The overnight news of an agreement to bring an end to the nightmare unleashed by Hamas on 7 October means that for the first time in two years, we can dare to hope for the release of all the hostages, and the conclusion of this terrible war.
We convey our deep appreciation to President Trump, the mediators, and most of all, the indefatigable campaigning of the hostage families whose courage, resilience, and determination has been a beacon to the world.
We will celebrate the return of those living and praying for their swift recovery and care, and we will mourn the returning dead, thinking of their loved ones in their time of grief.
It is time for healing. It is time for peace.
Reuters has a breaking news line from an Israeli official who has said the release of 20 Israeli hostages from Gaza is expected on Sunday or Monday.
More details soon …
WHO ready to 'scale up' health response after Gaza ceasefire, says director general
The World Health Organization (WHO) director general hailed on Thursday the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas as “a big step towards lasting peace”, saying his agency was prepared to “scale up” health assistance in Gaza.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X:
WHO stands ready to scale up its work to meet the dire health needs of patients across Gaza, and to support rehabilitation of the destroyed health system.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that Germany is still observing the situation regarding the Gaza ceasfire deal but is confident a solution will be found this week.
“We are encouraged by the developments in Israel. There is obviously a great chance of reaching an agreement with Hamas in the next few hours,” Merz said after a meeting with senior members of his governing coalition in Berlin.
Meanwhile, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday hailed the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying he hoped “this marks the beginning of a just and lasting peace”. He added:
Now it is time to engage in dialogue, to support the civilian population, and to look to the future with hope. But also with justice and with remembrance, so that the atrocities experienced are never repeated.
The Spanish leader is one of the most vocal critics in Europe of Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.
UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said the Gaza ceasefire plan must be implemented as quickly as possible.
Speaking to reporters at Hillsborough Castle, where she is hosting a western Balkans summit, the foreign secretary said:
The agreement on the first phase of President [Donald] Trump’s peace initiative is a moment of profound significance, relief and hope. And I want to pay tribute to the negotiators from the US, from Qatar, from Egypt, from Turkey, and all the many nations who have been working so hard over many months to help get to this point.
After two years of the most devastating suffering, with tens of thousands of lives being lost, with the pain of hostages held for so long, and with the humanitarian crisis taking place, the agreement now to a ceasefire, to the restoration of humanitarian aid and to the release of all the hostages is immensely important and must be implemented as swiftly as possible.
She added:
Later today I will be travelling from here with the German foreign minister, my colleague, to Paris for the discussions later today about how all nations can support the immensely work that has been done thus far on President Trump’s peace initiative, but also how we make sure that we take it forward.
Cooper added that the UK “stands ready to play our part” in implementing the Gaza ceasefire plan.
The UK will help realise not just the initial phase of the plan to end fighting in Gaza, she said, “but also on the crucial work going forward now on phase two as well”.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, she said:
Because that work will continue as nations across the world come together to support a just and lasting peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
We have seen some of the images of relief and hope on the streets of Gaza and on the streets of Israel overnight, and all nations will want to make sure that that is turned into reality.
Macron says hopes Gaza peace plan will lead to 'political solution based on the two-state solution'
Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that he welcomed the agreement to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, adding France will continue to hold talks with international partners to seek a political solution to the war.
Macron said in posts on social media platform X:
Great hope for the hostages and their families, for the Palestinians in Gaza, and for the entire region. I welcome the agreement reached overnight for the release of the hostages and the ceasefire in Gaza, and I commend the efforts of President @realDonaldTrump, as well as the Qatari, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators who helped make it happen.
I call on all parties to strictly uphold its terms. This agreement must mark the end of the war and the beginning of a political solution based on the two-state solution. France stands ready to contribute to this goal. We will discuss it this afternoon in Paris with our international partners.
Palestinian president Abbas welcomes Gaza deal
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas hailed a Gaza ceasefire deal agreed by Israel and Hamas on Thursday, saying he hoped it could lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) report that in a statement on social media, Abbas “welcomed the announcement by US President Donald Trump of an agreement to cease the war on the Gaza Strip,” and “expressed hope that these efforts would be a prelude to reaching a permanent political solution … leading to an end to the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state”.
