A framework for continued negotiation, not a finished agreement
Trump claims both Israel and Hamas approved phase one of his peace plan, involving hostage liberation and Israeli troop withdrawal to agreed lines in Gaza. Hamas demands full Israeli withdrawal and end of war; Netanyahu insists army stays in most of Gaza and Hamas must disarm—key disagreements remain unresolved.
- 47 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza; 25 confirmed dead
- Over 67,100 Palestinians killed in Gaza according to Hamas health ministry
- 1,219 Israelis killed in October 7, 2023 attack
- Trump's 20-point plan includes ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal, Hamas disarmament, and humanitarian aid
US President Trump announced that Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with hostage releases and Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza as the first phase of a peace plan, pending government approvals.
Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his peace plan—a framework that would free all remaining hostages held in Gaza and require Israeli forces to withdraw to predetermined lines within Palestinian territory. Speaking through his Truth Social account, Trump declared himself proud of the breakthrough, framing the arrangement as the opening move toward what he called a durable and lasting peace.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, responded with cautious optimism, invoking divine assistance and pledging to bring the hostages home. He said his government would convene to formally approve the deal. Hamas, for its part, issued a statement characterizing the accord as an agreement to end the war entirely, and called on Trump to ensure Israel honored its commitments.
The announcement came in dramatic fashion. Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a White House event to hand Trump a handwritten note from negotiators in Egypt, indicating the deal was imminent and urging the president to post about it immediately on social media so he could claim the announcement first. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had invited Trump to witness the formal signing, and Trump indicated he would travel to Egypt over the weekend for the ceremony.
The timing held symbolic weight. The agreement emerged just days before the second anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians. Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 47 remained in Gaza—25 of them confirmed dead by the Israeli military. Trump's twenty-point plan promised not only a ceasefire but also the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to a territory ravaged by two years of war.
Yet significant fractures remained visible beneath the announcement. Hamas had agreed to release captives but demanded Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza and an end to military operations—notably omitting any commitment to its own disarmament, a cornerstone of Trump's proposal. Netanyahu, while endorsing the plan, made clear that Israeli troops would remain throughout most of Gaza and reiterated that Hamas must be dismantled. These contradictions suggested the accord was less a finished agreement than a framework for continued negotiation.
The tensions surfaced immediately. On the same Wednesday, Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's far-right National Security Minister, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—a site of profound religious and political significance—an act that provoked fury from Hamas and several Arab nations. Ben Gvir had declared before the announcement that he prayed Netanyahu would pursue total victory in Gaza, destroy Hamas entirely, and recover the hostages.
The broader context underscored the scale of what remained unresolved. Israel's military response to the October 7 attack had devastated Gaza, creating what the United Nations characterized as a famine and what independent UN investigators described as genocide—a charge Israeli leadership categorically rejected. According to the Hamas health ministry, more than 67,100 Palestinians had been killed, the vast majority civilians. Two previous ceasefires, in November 2023 and early 2025, had enabled the return of some hostages and bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but neither had ended the conflict.
Delegations from Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were expected to join Hamas negotiators in Egypt that evening. High-ranking officials from the United States, Qatar, and Turkey, along with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, had been present throughout the talks. Trump's plan now awaited formal approval from both sides—a process that would test whether the framework could survive the weight of two years of accumulated grievance and the competing demands of parties with fundamentally incompatible objectives.
Notable Quotes
With God's help, all the hostages will return home— Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
I pray our prime minister allows total victory in Gaza to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages— Itamar Ben Gvir, Israeli National Security Minister
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did Trump need to announce this himself, rather than letting the parties make the statement?
Because he wanted to own the moment. The note Rubio handed him made that explicit—they needed him to post first so he could be credited with brokering the deal. For Trump, the announcement itself is part of the victory.
But the deal seems to have major holes in it. Netanyahu and Hamas are still disagreeing on core points.
They are. This is a "first phase" precisely because neither side has actually conceded on the things that matter most. Netanyahu won't commit to leaving Gaza; Hamas won't commit to disarming. What they've agreed to is the process of negotiating those things, not the things themselves.
What about the hostages? Are they actually coming home?
That's the one concrete commitment. Both sides say they'll release captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. It's happened before, twice in the last two years. But whether it happens this time depends on whether the larger framework holds, and there's no guarantee it will.
Ben Gvir's visit to the Temple Mount seems deliberately provocative.
It was. He visited while the deal was being announced, knowing it would anger Hamas and Arab countries. It signals that the Israeli right isn't accepting the framework as final—that there's still a constituency pushing for total victory, not compromise.
What does Trump actually get out of this?
A foreign policy win he can point to, especially if hostages come home. Whether the peace holds is secondary to whether he can claim credit for brokering it. The weekend trip to Egypt is theater—he's positioning himself as the architect of Middle East peace.
And if it falls apart?
Then we're back where we started, but with even more exhaustion on all sides. Two previous ceasefires have already collapsed. The structural problems—Israeli occupation, Palestinian sovereignty, Hamas's existence—haven't been solved by this framework. It's bought time, maybe, but not peace.