HAMAS and other Palestinian factions agreed on Thursday to a framework for a Gaza ceasefire after months of mediation by Qatar and Egypt.
‘From our side, yes,’ a Hamas official told US based Dropsite News, adding that they still needed to ‘finalise some points’ with mediators.
A second source close to the negotiators said: ‘It’s over, it’s over. It’s been decided. Everybody’s agreed on it.
‘There are a few things that will be discussed, but it’s over.’
Earlier on Wednesday Trump had hinted that an announcement was imminent. ‘We have a great team over there, great negotiators. And there are unfortunately great negotiators on the other side also,’ he said on Wednesday.
‘But it’s something I think will happen, got a good chance of happening … Our final negotiation is with Hamas and it seems to be going well.’
Shortly after those remarks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio handed Trump a note at an event, prompting the president to say he had been told ‘we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East’ and that he would be needed ‘pretty quickly’.
Thirty-seven minutes after the first reports appeared, Trump declared the deal done.
‘I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This 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. All parties will be treated fairly!’ he wrote on Truth Social.
‘This is a GREAT day for the Arab and Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America.’
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote: ‘With God’s help we will bring them all home.’
He added: ‘Tomorrow I will convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home.’
Qatar’s foreign ministry, which together with Egypt has led the shuttle talks, said on X: ‘An agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid.’
Palestinian negotiators told US based Dropsite News that their central concern had been to avoid surrendering all leverage by handing over every Israeli captive without a full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
They said Israel has repeatedly violated past ceasefires with Hamas and with Lebanon, and any new arrangement would be a high-stakes gamble. Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader, said in an interview with Dropsite News on Monday: ‘This is a risk, but we trusted President Trump to be the guarantor of all the commitments made.
‘Had there been no commitment from the American president, we would never have agreed to take the risk, because we do not trust Netanyahu or his extremist right-wing team in the current Israeli government.’
Despite months of insisting that no deal could stand without a complete pull-out of occupation forces, the Palestinian side accepted a framework that would keep Israeli troops inside Gaza at positions still being mapped as part of the exchange and redeployment process.
‘This is something they were not able to move,’ said a source close to the talks, noting that the exact lines for redeployment were still under discussion and that Israeli units would remain entrenched in parts of Gaza for now.
The same source told Dropsite News: ‘Trusting (Trump’s) word is the gamble they are taking. If it works, they will be considered geniuses. If it fails, they will be considered fools. It’s as simple as that.’
A senior Hamas official said that mediators had also assured the Palestinian side that the Rafah crossing would be reopened in both directions.
On aid, a source close to the negotiators said deliveries would resume at levels set by the January 2025 ceasefire, with 600 trucks a day entering Gaza.
Israel abandoned that agreement in March, imposing a full blockade and resuming a bombing campaign that later expanded into a ground assault on Gaza City in August.
The draft provides for Israel to free about 2,000 Palestinians held in prisons and military camps, the majority taken from Gaza after 7 October, including all women and children.
Negotiations remain live over the final lists and whether any of the most prominent figures will be freed.
Hamas has demanded freedom for Marwan Barghouti, widely regarded as the most popular Palestinian political leader, but Netanyahu has reportedly assured far-right interior minister Itamar Ben-Gvir he will not release Barghouti.
Hamas has also sought the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Abdullah Barghouti, who is serving 67 life terms.
Palestinian and Israeli officials estimate there are 20 living Israeli captives, with another 28 believed to be deceased.
Hamas figures said that some of the bodies lie under rubble from Israeli air strikes or in areas under Israeli control, and that additional time would be needed to recover remains.
An understanding is being drafted to allow for that process.
Trump dispatched his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Sharm El-Sheikh on Wednesday to finalise arrangements with delegations headed by Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer.
Trump said he would likely travel to the region ‘maybe Sunday’ and had set a deadline of Friday for the sides to complete negotiations.
Abu Marzouk told Dropsite News that Trump’s personal ambitions were shaping the timetable: ‘He is very eager for the Nobel Peace Prize, and therefore he wants the problem solved today or tomorrow so that the vote … will be in his favour for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.’
Multiple Palestinian sources told Dropsite News that they see two paths: a brokered end to a genocide carried out by a US-backed Israeli military, or an indefinite continuation of armed struggle.
‘There is no other deal to be taken. Either this or return to fight with full American support coupled with Arab and Islamic passivity and let-down,’ said a source close to the negotiators.
According to that source, the present arrangement reflects red lines the factions insisted upon in their written response to Trump’s 20-point plan: ‘No surrender, no disarming, no mass exile, but most of all a permanent end to the war to be announced by Trump.’
When Hamas responded last Friday to Trump’s proposal, it said its mandate extended only to issues directly tied to the Gaza war.
It also said that sweeping matters such as demilitarisation, disarmament and any deployment of foreign troops would require a broader Palestinian consensus involving all factions.
Those questions will be deferred to a later round if the ceasefire takes hold.
A source close to the Palestinian negotiators said: ‘The next round of negotiations will be very tricky, but going back to genocide will not be easy, even though it’s probable.
‘The cost-benefit analysis would favour accepting it. The next negotiations must be conducted in a very smart way.’