Donald Trump has told the families of Israeli hostages their loved ones will be returning home on Monday after Israel and Hamas agreed to phase one of a peace deal.
The US president announced late last night that the two sides will pause fighting and release at least some of the hostages and prisoners.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: '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.'
Qatar, which helped broker the deal along with Egypt and Turkey, said it was the 'first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailed the news as a 'moment of profound relief that will be felt around the world'.
Under Trump's deal, Hamas plans to release all 20 remaining hostages in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile, the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza.
Last night, the US president spoke to the families of those held captive by the terror organisation during a phone call with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
With Trump on speakerphone, Lutnick asked the families: 'You have the best crowd in the world, what do you have to say to President Trump?' The entire group of about a dozen people responded: 'Thank you!'
'Thank you very much everybody,' responded Trump, as one of the family members exclaimed: 'You did it!'
Another family member told Trump: 'Mr President, we believe in you. We know you've done so much for us since you became the president and even before that and we trust you'll fulfill the mission until every hostage, every 48 of them, are home.'
He thanked Trump again before repeating the president's own line from the deal announcement back to him: 'Blessed be the peacemakers'.
Trump's Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to arrive in Israel today.
The news of the deal comes just two days after the second anniversary of October 7 - the attacks by terror group Hamas on Israel which sparked the current conflict.
Nearly 1,200 people were killed during the incursion, and around 250 people were taken as hostages into Gaza.
There are 48 hostages still held in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Trump said he believed that all the hostages - including the deceased - will be 'coming back' on Monday.
Hamas has said that it is still searching for some of the slain hostages held in the Strip.
A taskforce has been established to locate the deceased missing hostages, an official told the Daily Mail, including representatives from Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar, who will work with forces on the ground in the enclave to find their location.
The prisoner-hostage exchange should take place within 72 hours of the Israeli government vote ratifying the deal later this afternoon, an official added.
On Wednesday night, Trump said the world 'coming together' had helped forge his landmark deal between Israel and Hamas.
'This is more than Gaza,' Trump told American TV presenter Sean Hannity during a telephone interview Wednesday night. 'This is peace in the Middle East.'
Trump declared it was a 'great day for the world' as he imagined a prosperous future for the war torn area.
'The whole world has come together on this one, Israel, every country has come together. This has been a fantastic day,' he said. 'This is a great day for the world. This is a wonderful day, a wonderful day for everybody.'
Trump also said Gaza will be a 'peaceful, much safer place' and the US would remain involved to ensure its safety and prosperity.
'Other countries in the area will help it reconstruct because they have tremendous wealth,' Trump said, adding: 'We'll be involved in helping them make it successful and helping it stay peaceful.'
Trump confirmed that he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Wednesday night. The prime minister told him, 'I can't believe it,' according to the president's retelling.
The president then told Netanyahu: 'Israel cannot fight the world, Bibi, they can't fight the world.' He added that the Israeli leader, 'understands that very well.'
Trump said that other countries in the region will help Gaza rebuild but that the United States will help keep things peaceful.
'Gaza, we believe, is going to be a much safer place, and it's going to be a place that reconstructs, and other countries in the area will help it reconstruct, because they have tremendous amounts of wealth, and they want to see that happen,' he said.
'We'll be involved in helping them make it successful and helping it stay peaceful,' the president added.
Trump also confirmed that the 20 living hostages will be released 'probably Monday'.
The major peace deal was announced by Trump just two days before the 2025 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is revealed. The winner will be be awarded on December 10 at a formal ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
Trump has long made the prize one of his ambitions as president.
He also credited his controversial tariff program as helping to lead to this peace deal.
'The tariffs have brought peace to the world, I'm telling you. They have brought peace to the world,' he said. 'They give you a tremendous road to peace and the saving of millions of lives, just millions and millions of lives.'
President Trump announced Wednesday night that both Israel and Hamas had signed off on the 'first phase' of his proposed peace deal - a substantial step in ending the war in Gaza.
'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,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
'All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen,' he continued. 'BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!'
Netanyahu said the government will convene Thursday to ratify the deal and looked forward to the release of the hostages.
The deal will be formally signed on Thursday around midday in Egypt, a source with knowledge of the agreement told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A Hamas official said negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire would begin 'immediately'.
'With God's help, we will bring them all home,' Netanyahu said in a statement.
'I thank the heroic soldiers of the IDF and all the security forces — thanks to their courage and sacrifice we have reached this day. I thank from the bottom of my heart President Trump and his team for mobilizing for this sacred mission of freeing our hostages.
'With God's help, together we will continue to achieve all our objectives and expand peace with our neighbors.'
Hamas thanked Trump, as well as mediators in Qatar, Egypt and Turkey for the peace deal which they say provides 'the withdrawal of the occupation, allows the entry of aid and implements a prisoner exchange.'
'We call on President Trump, the guarantor states of the agreement, and all Arab, Islamic and international parties to oblige the government of the occupation to fulfill all the agreement's commitments, and not to allow it to evade or delay implementation of the accords.'
Netanyahu's office said that he and Trump spoke and congratulated each other on the agreement to release all hostages, which Netanyahu's office described as a 'historic achievement.'
According to a statement from the prime minister's office, the conversation was 'warm and moving.' Netanyahu thanked Trump for his 'efforts and global leadership,' while Trump praised Netanyahu's 'determined leadership and the actions he led.'
A senior Hamas official said the group has handed over a list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released as part of the ceasefire deal.
Zaher Jabarin, who oversees Palestinian prisoners' affairs, said in a statement the list was prepared in accordance with 'the criteria agreed upon in the agreement.'
He said the group still 'awaiting final agreement on the names,' and that they will be announced 'once the relevant procedures and understandings are completed.'An Israeli official told CNN that they're preparing for Trump to visit early next week.
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres welcomed the agreement between Israel and Hamas late Wednesday while urging all parties to 'abide fully by the terms of the agreement.'
Guterres said that the U.N. will support the full implementation of the agreement and is ready to deliver more humanitarian aid to Gaza, which has been sitting on the border of Jordan and Egypt.
'I urge all stakeholders to seize this momentous opportunity to establish a credible political path forward towards ending the occupation, recognizing the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, and achieving a two-state solution that enables Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security,' he said.
Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had interrupted a roundtable Trump was having in the State Dining Room to deliver him an urgent note on the Gaza peace deal.
'I was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying that we're very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they're going to need me pretty quickly,' Trump told attendees.
The frantically scrawled note was caught on camera.
It read: 'Very close. We need you to approve a post on Truth Social soon, so you can announce the deal first.'
At the same event, Trump confirmed reports that he would head to the Middle East as soon as this weekend.
He told reporters he would likely travel to Egypt , where negotiations are happening, but expressed an openness to traveling to Gaza as well.
Trump also has yet to travel to Israel during his second term.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the trip in a statement, saying that Trump would visit Walter Reed on Friday to meet with the troops and receive his annual physical as he's 'considering going to the Middle East shortly thereafter.'
There, he would join special envoy Witkoff and son-in-law Kushner, who have been attending the talks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed satisfaction Thursday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza and thanked Donald Trump's efforts to end the war.
'I am greatly pleased that the Hamas-Israel talks... have resulted in a ceasefire in Gaza, I especially thank US President, Mr. Trump, who demonstrated the necessary political will to encourage the Israeli government toward the ceasefire,' Erdogan said on his official X account.
Turkey, which has been closely involved in the negotiations and sent a team to the talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, would 'closely monitor the strict implementation of the agreement', he added.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said both sides have already agreed 'on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement'.
Prior to Trump's announcement, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that he had received 'encouraging' signs and hailed the support of Trump, whose 20-point peace proposal formed the basis of the talks.
Hamas too expressed 'optimism' over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel.
In exchange, Hamas is set to release 47 hostages, both alive and dead, that the group had seized during the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel, when 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken into Gaza as hostages.
Among the bodies held by the terrorist group is an IDF soldier killed in the Strip in 2014.
Once the hostages are returned, Israel will free 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, plus 1,700 Gazans arrested since October 7, including all the women and children.
For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 dead Gazans, the Trump plan says.
Trump's announcement of a deal comes one day after the second anniversary of that grim day, which kickstarted the present war.
This will be the third ceasefire reached since the start of the war.
The first, in November 2023, saw more than 100 hostages, mainly women and children, freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners before it broke down.
The second, in January and February of this year, saw Palestinian militants release 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight more in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel ended that ceasefire in March with a surprise bombardment.
