Israel cabinet meets to vote on plan

In London, two pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested when about 2,000 people from the Campaign Against Antisemitism held a demonstration outside Downing Street, marking a week since the terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

The two protesters refused to leave the area and were arrested for breaching public order conditions imposed on Whitehall to combat pro-Palestinian plans to gather in the same area at the same time, causing fears of potential clashes.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism demonstrators bore Israeli and union flags and held phone lights aloft. The Metropolitan Police said the event took place largely without incident before dispersing.
One demonstrator’s placard said: “British Jews slaughtered on your watch Starmer” and others asked: “Will you defend Britain’s Jews? Prove it”.

The Israeli army has confirmed that it struck the Sabra area of Gaza City this evening. The Hamas-run civil defence agency had said 40 people were trapped under rubble.

The Israel Defence Forces said they had targeted a Hamas cell “operating close to forces and posed an immediate threat to IDF troops operating in the area”.

The ceasefire deal, although agreed by both sides, has yet to come into effect and will only do so within 24 hours of the Israeli cabinet approving the deal.

President Trump has said Palestinians will be allowed to remain in Gaza as part of his peace deal. “Nobody’s going to be forced to leave,” he said. “Just the opposite.”

Speaking alongside Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, Trump again suggested he deserved a Nobel peace prize for his efforts, complaining that President Obama was awarded his “for doing nothing”.

“He got elected and they gave it to him for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country,” said Trump.

Binyamin Netanyahu is meeting Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Israeli media says the US pair have joined the cabinet meeting.

Earlier, they met President Herzog of Israel. “During their meeting, the president discussed with the envoys the framework of the agreement they led and negotiated to secure the return of the hostages and to bring about an end to the war with Hamas,” the presidency said in a statement.

President Trump has said he will leave for Israel on Sunday to be there for the return of the hostages on Monday or Tuesday.

Speaking alongside Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, Trump said the ceasefire deal was “all finalised and done”.

“I think the hostages will be coming back Monday or Tuesday,” he said. “I hope to be there. We’re planning on leaving sometime Sunday.”

Israel’s defence minister has told the military to “respond with great force” to Hamas attacks until the peace deal is approved.

Israel Katz said on X: “I have instructed the IDF to respond with great force to any threat and any attack by the Hamas terrorist organisation in Gaza against our forces in the interim stage, from before the government’s decision until the implementation of the agreement.

“Maintaining the security of IDF soldiers is the first and foremost thing we are committed to, and we will take every step necessary to ensure this.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hard-right national security minister, has said that he and his party, Jewish Power, would not vote in favour of a deal as the cabinet met.

He warned that Jewish Power, which is a crucial partner in Binyamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, would push to topple the government unless Hamas was ultimately dismantled.

“In conversations that took place between me and the prime minister in recent days, I clarified that under no circumstances will I be part of a government that allows the continued existence of Hamas rule in Gaza. This is a glaring red line. The prime minister committed to me that this is how it will be,” he posted on X.

Ben-Gvir continued: “If Hamas rule is not dismantled, or if they just tell us that it has been dismantled while in practice it continues to exist under another guise — Jewish Power will dismantle the government.”

Khalil al-Hayya, a Hamas leader, said the militant group had received guarantees from the US and Arab mediators and Turkey that the war in Gaza had ended permanently.

An official ceasefire has yet to begin, however, and explosions have been reported in the Gaza Strip. Columns of smoke were seen in a series of clips posted by the BBC.

The Hamas-run civil defence minstry in Gaza said more than 40 Palestinians were trapped under rubble after an Israeli airstrike on the al-Sabra area of Gaza City.

The Israeli security cabinet meeting has ended, Reuters says. Ministers from the full cabinet are due to begin a meeting to approve plans for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.

The cabinet is expected to ratify the deal, and once it does, a ceasefire will come into force within 24 hours, an Israeli government spokesperson said earlier. After that, the hostages held in Gaza would be freed within 72 hours.

A draft of the hostage release agreement being scrutinised by Israel’s security cabinet includes 28 hostages who are dead and 20 who are alive, Israeli media reported. This suggests that a further two hostages have died.

On Thursday, President al-Sisi of Egypt urged mediators to “convince the Israelis to de-escalate or cease fire” until the signing of the agreement to end the war in Gaza.

In a meeting with the US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, he said developments in Gaza, where Israeli strikes continued, “may not be in the spirit of the agreement”.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was lit up in the colours of the American flag to herald the expected visit of President Trump in the coming days.

The public broadcaster Kan said the president was expected to land in Israel at 3pm local time on Sunday, but the timings have not been confirmed by the White House.

President Trump has said there will be “disarming” in the second phase of the ceasefire deal in response to questions at the end of a cabinet meeting.

He appeared reluctant to talk about the subsequent phases of the deal beyond the release of the hostages. “I’m not going to talk about that,” he said, before adding: “There will be disarming, there will be pullbacks.”

In Gaza City on Thursday, the ambulance sirens were blaring, people wept in the streets and gunfire echoed. But it was the noise of celebration, not of violence.

As news of the agreement between Israel and Hamas spread, there was an outpouring of relief at the prospect of a ceasefire, and maybe a lasting peace.

“We’re filled with joy the massacres have finally stopped,” said Khaled Abu Ghali, 28, who was from Gaza City but, displaced, had ended up in Khan Yunis. “For months we lived in fear and hunger, and today, for the first time, we feel safe. People are crying in the streets out of happiness; we can hardly believe the war is really over.”

Jaber Abu Hadaid, 49, from Khan Yunis, said: “For the first time, we’ll sleep peacefully. My house is gone, but what I feel inside can’t be described. I’m happy that we’ll go back safely, even if it’s to the rubble.”

President Trump says: “Everybody’s happy,” he said. “They’re dancing in the streets of Arab countries, Muslim countries.”

In Sharm el-Sheikh, delegations have concluded their discussions on which Palestinian prisoners will be released, the Qatari news outlet Al-Araby reported.

The deal to release hostages in return for the prisoners, among whom are perpetrators of the October 7 attacks, is pending approval by the Israeli government.

Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said President Trump would be in line for next year’s Nobel peace prize if a lasting peace was achieved.

“Next year’s, if this continues …then yes he should [win]. Of course he should. But the ceasefire won’t be enough,” she told Times Radio. “There needs to be much more work done.

“But if in the end we do get peace in the Middle East, that we get a state for Palestine, that Israel is safe and secure, that things are able to settle down in the Middle East — because things won’t settle down in the Middle East until there is justice for the Palestinians — if that happens, sure.

“In fact, frankly, if we get peace in the Middle East and it’s down to Donald Trump, I’ll wear a Maga hat.”

Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, has told troops serving in Gaza that the ceasefire deal would not have been possible without the efforts of the army.

He said: “The signing of the agreement to return the hostages this morning is a ray of light for all of us and further evidence of the achievements of the ground manoeuvre.”

At the start of the cabinet meeting President Trump also said Iran wanted to negotiate peace with Israel following the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

“Iran wants to work on peace now, they’ve informed us,” he said. “And they’ve acknowledged that they’re totally in favour of this deal.”

Sir Simon Fraser, the former head of the Foreign Office, said it was important the US remained focused on seeing through each phase of the deal.

“We need to make sure that American attention remains focused but we also need to make sure that the balance in this proposal of 20 points, which is what actually allowed it to happen, is maintained, that it doesn’t become unduly skewed in favour of one side or the other, potentially Israel,” he told Times Radio.

“And also, frankly, that we don’t allow the 20 points to be divided up into phases, so that we focus on one or two things being achieved, and then we forget that actually this is an overall package and there’s a long road ahead to peace.”

Israel had carried out “big retribution” following the October 7 attacks, President Trump said.
“At some point that whole thing has to stop.”

He said the reconstruction of Gaza would be funded by wealthy Middle Eastern countries.
“Just a small part of what they make will do wonders for Gaza,” he said.

President Trump has said he will go to Egypt to officially sign a Gaza peace deal and will visit Israel.

“Last night we reached a momentous breakthrough in the Middle East,” he said at the start of a cabinet meeting.

“I think it’s going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace. We’re going to go to Egypt. Have an official signing. It’s really peace in the Middle East.”

Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have arrived in Tel Aviv. Both have been instrumental in the US administration’s efforts to develop a peace plan and were involved in the hostage release negotiations in Egypt that led to last night’s agreement.

A meeting of Israel’s security cabinet has begun after a 90-minute delay that, Israeli television Channel 12 reported, was caused by discussions over the list of the Palestinian prisoners set to be released under the deal. Many were guilty of killing Israeli civilians.

Binyamin Netanyahu has accomplished his three war goals, a spokeswoman for the Israeli prime minister has said in a televised statement.

Shosh Bedrosian said: “We have hit a critical point in this war. From day one in this war, the prime minister laid out three objectives — the return of all of our hostages, the defeat and dismantling of Hamas and ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. All of the prime minister’s objectives have now been achieved.”

The meeting of Israel’s cabinet at which the peace deal is to be ratified has been postponed to 8pm — 6pm BST — according to Israeli media.

The full cabinet meeting will be preceded by a security cabinet meeting, which has not begun.

Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, reiterated in a meeting in Ramallah with Israeli peace activists that he welcomed the deal to end the war and release the hostages.

“A few months ago, Trump had a plan to expel the Palestinians, but later he forgot about it,” Abbas said. “Nevertheless, we will remain in our homeland and establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.”

At the meeting were Ayman Odeh, an Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset, and dozens of representatives of Israeli peace organisations.

A senior White House official expects the release of hostages to begin early next week, as suggested by President Trump. “Our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday,” the official wrote in a statement to journalists.

Once the Israeli cabinet approves the deal, the IDF will withdraw to the agreed line within Gaza in a process that will take less than 24 hours. After that, Hamas will have 72 hours to release the hostages, the statement said.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, has said the bloc is ready to discuss how it can contribute to the Gaza peace plan. “This is the best chance we have,” she said, speaking before a conference in Paris on security, governance and reconstruction in the territory.

Israel’s security cabinet, made up of key ministers, has gathered at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem to approve the ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas this morning in Egypt.

After that, the full Israeli cabinet will meet to vote on the deal. A clear majority is expected to ratify the agreement, which would officially begin the ceasefire within 24 hours.

President Trump will declare that the war in Gaza has “ended” before the hostages are released, a senior Hamas official has suggested.

Osama Hamdan, who represented the militants in Lebanon and Iran, said that details of the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners would be finalised on Saturday and the release would take place on Monday.

“The implementation will be preceded by a declaration that the war has ended,” Hamdan told the Qatari television channel Al-Araby. He expected Trump would make that announcement.

Iran has welcomed the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Hamas, which it has supported for years, and Israel, its arch-nemesis.

“Iran has always supported any action and initiative that includes stopping the genocidal war, withdrawal of the occupying forces, bringing in humanitarian aid, releasing Palestinian prisoners and realising the fundamental rights of the Palestinians,” the foreign ministry said.

It called on the international community to prevent Israel from “violating its obligations” under the deal.

Binyamin Netanyahu has said in a post on the official X account of the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel that President Trump deserved the Nobel peace prize, accompanied by a mocked-up picture of him handing the award to the US president.

Preparations are being made for President Trump to be in Israel on Sunday, according to the Israeli president’s office.

President Herzog has cancelled his plans in light of an expected visit to Jerusalem on Sunday, the office said.

The visit has not been confirmed, but Binyanmin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has invited Trump to address members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, while Trump himself said on Wednesday that he might visit the region this weekend.

Steve Witkoff, the US envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, are also expected to travel to Israel after being present in Egypt for yesterday’s negotiations which agreed the deal between Israel and Hamas.

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, urged Israel to provide full and sustained access for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“The United Nations stands ready to provide its full support. We and our partners are prepared to move now,” Guterres said.

Under the terms of Trump’s plan, five border crossings into the strip would reopen, including the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, according to Egyptian and Hamas officials.

This would allow between 400 and 600 trucks a day to bring much-needed food, medicines and fuel in.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, earlier said it had enough supplies stockpiled to feed Gaza’s population for three months.

Israel banned UNRWA aid from entering Gaza in March, and accused the agency of infiltration by Hamas, a claim for which it has not provided evidence.

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, has welcomed the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, but stressed the need for “a credible political path” towards a two-state solution.

“For Israelis and Palestinians alike, this deal offers a glimmer of relief,” he told journalists. “That glimmer must become the dawn of peace; the beginning of the end of this devastating war.”

He added: “I urge all to seize this momentous opportunity to establish a credible political path forward. A path towards ending the occupation, recognising the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, and achieving a two-state solution.”

Despite recognition of a Palestinian state by Britain, France and 150 other countries, Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea.

Sir Keir Starmer dodged a question on Tony Blair’s possible involvement in a governing ‘board of peace’, saying he was “less interested in discussions of personnel”.

Asked by Sky News if the public should trust Blair’s instincts in the Middle East, the prime minister said: “I’m less interested in discussions of personnel than I am in getting it implemented.

“The UK has played an important part behind the scenes in relation to these negotiations with US and mediators. For me what matters is the substance of what happens next.”

Sir Keir Starmer has personally thanked President Trump for his role in the plan to end fighting in Gaza.

Speaking at a press conference in Mumbai, the prime minister said: “I strongly welcome this deal, and I will take this opportunity to put on record my thanks to President Trump for his leadership on this, the Qataris, to Egypt and Turkey, who have done really important work in the negotiations.

“It is a relief to the world.”

A ceasefire in Gaza will take effect “within 24 hours” after the Israeli cabinet meeting that is due to take place this evening, according to Shosh Bedrosian, the Israeli goverment spokeswoman.

This differs from earlier reports, which suggested a ceasefire could start straight away once the deal has been ratified by Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Marwan Barghouti, the prominent Palestinian prisoner, would not be among those freed in exchange for Israeli hostages, Shosh Bedrosian, Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokeswoman, said. She said further details would be announced later today.

The Israeli prime minister’s spokeswoman also confirmed that the 72-hour deadline for Hamas to release the hostages would start only after an initial 24-hour period to allow Israeli forces in Gaza to withdraw to an initial “yellow line” as defined by maps for Trump’s plan. After this, Israel would control about “53 per cent of the Gaza Strip” she said.

She suggested that this timeline could see the hostages released on Monday.

Shosh Bedrosian, the spokeswoman for Israel’s prime minister’s office, confirmed the agreement with Hamas was signed earlier on Thursday and said Israel is preparing to receive the hostages, both living and dead, “in all conditions they may be in”.

Bedrosian said they expected the handover by Hamas to be “conducted with respect and decorum” and “we will have no tolerance for our hostages being paraded around” as has happened in the past.

Turkey will take part in efforts to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza agreed by Israel and Hamas, President Erdogan said.

“God willing, we as Turkey will take part in the mission force that will monitor the agreement’s implementation in the field,” he said in a speech in Ankara, adding that his country will also contribute to the reconstruction of Gaza.

A joint task force involving Israel, the US, Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt will try to locate the bodies of deceased hostages in Gaza, as some are thought to be buried under rubble or in areas no longer under Hamas’s control.

A former diplomat covering Gaza has expressed concern over Tony Blair’s possible role in a governing “board of peace”.

Sir Richard Dalton, the former consul general who represented the UK in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, told Times Radio that the former prime minister’s judgement on Middle Eastern matters “has been bad since 2002”.

That includes “his failure as an envoy of the Quartet, supposedly bringing peace to the Middle East”, Dalton said, referring to Blair’s role as the representative of the UN, EU, US and Russia in mediating the peace process between Israel and Palestine from 2007-2015.

“So the absence of a Palestinian role of any significance in this board is also a strong negative,” he added.

“Personally, I hope that this part of the potential plan will be negotiated in order to associate the Palestinian people in arrangements for their own future.”

A senior Hamas official has accused Israel of trying to “sabotage” the ceasefire agreement by disputing what Palestinian prisoners are released in exchange for the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Mahmoud Mardawi wrote on social media that disagreements over the exchange are threatening to derail the deal, according to The Times of Israel.

“It seems Netanyahu is trying to sabotage the ceasefire agreement before its implementation, by reneging on prisoner release lists in an attempt to derail the understandings,” the news site quoted him as saying.

Hamas has requested that Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader who is serving more than five life sentences for murder, be released along with others convicted of terrorism offences. However, there are conflicting reports about whether Israel has agreed to their release.

Under the terms of Trump’s plan, Israel has agreed to release 250 prisoners serving life sentences as well as 1,700 Gazans detained since the attacks of October 7, 2023.

Binyamin Netanyahu faces one of the greatest challenges of his political career as his cabinet meets on Thursday to ratify a deal that will lead to the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Hostages could be freed in days if Netanyahu’s government signs President Trump’s ceasefire deal. But there are no guarantees for the Israeli prime minister.

• Read in full: Peace deal could define — or derail — Netanyahu’s career

Catherine Philp, The Times’ world affairs editor, talks to Times Radio about the implications on Hamas of the peace deal.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, has said he will support the deal struck with Hamas at Thursday’s cabinet meetings and has said he hopes it will open “new diplomatic horizons” for his country.

In a statement published on X, Sa’ar lauded several “achievements” in the last two years, including the “crushing of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza,” and the elimination of their leaders, “severe damage to Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile program, setting them back”, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

He also suggested that Middle Eastern states might normalise relations with Israel. “We have an interest in expanding the circle of peace and normalisation in the region,” Sa’ar said.

“It is important to note that even in the highly challenging last two years, not a single Arab state that signed peace and normalisation agreements with us has withdrawn from them,” referring to the so-called Abraham Accords signed with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

President Trump deserves credit for pushing Israel and Hamas to agree a deal “in a very direct way”, Michael Stephens, senior associate fellow in international security at Rusi has told Times Radio.

“Because he’s such a divisive figure, I think sometimes those people that are sort of atavistically inclined to not support him miss the times when he’s actually done something quite positive,” he said.

“If you look at what’s happened since the Israelis hit Qatar with an airstrike, Donald Trump has inserted himself into this process in a very direct way. He has more or less reined in Binyamin Netanyahu and said enough, I’ve had enough of this, time’s up, you come to the deal.

“And he’s also put additional pressure on Egypt and Qatar to get Hamas across the line to his own negotiators”.

Stephens added that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, may also have played a key role, due to his influence in Israel and the wider region.

“So once Trump had dedicated his, I would say the majority of his attention to it, isn’t it interesting how fast things moved?”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum UK said it welcomed the deal “with a mix of excitement, anticipation and concern”.

Among the remaining living hostages, those with British links include Avinatan Or, whose mother Ditza is British, and Alon Ohel, whose extended family live in London. The body of Yossi Sharabi, whose brother Eli was also abducted but later freed, and whose British wife and daughters were murdered on October 7, 2023, is also expected to be released.

Nivi Feldman and Haya Langerman from the group said the families welcoming living hostages home will feel “immense relief” while for those having the dead returned to them “the heartbreak will be unbearable”.

“If any hostages are not returned now, it will be devastating beyond words,” they said. Feldman and Langerman also said they were “profoundly grateful” to all nations involved in the effort, “especially President Trump and his team”.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is due to travel on Thursday to Paris, where a meeting of Arab and European ministers focused on helping Palestinians once the Gaza conflict ends is being hosted.

“This meeting will enable work on the implementation of the peace plan and the framework for the ‘day after’ by specifying the aspects of a collective commitment,” said a French foreign ministry statement.

It would focus on security, governance and reconstruction of the Palestinian territories after the war, it said.

Before the ceasefire deal was announced, Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign affairs minister, had denounced the “unnecessary and harmful” meeting “concocted behind Israel’s back” at the sensitive moment of the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The meeting is due to get under way at 4pm GMT, followed by a news conference by Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister.

It is not clear if President Macron would attend. Macron, who met Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan on Wednesday, also hailed the agreement between Israel and Hamas as providing “great hope” for the region.

A ceremony to mark the agreement will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh this afternoon, with representatives from the United States, Turkey, Qatar and Egypt, who acted as mediators. No officials from Israel and Hamas will be present and there will be no formal signing, pending its approval by the Israel cabinet at a meeting later this afternoon. The deal will not become active until its approval by the Israeli cabinet.

Nigel Farage has praised President Trump for a “great achievement”.

The Reform UK leader, who has long supported Trump, said: “Huge congratulations to President Trump and his team. Real progress between Israel and Hamas is a great achievement.”

Binyamin Netanyahu faces one of the greatest challenges of his political career this afternoon when his cabinet meets at 6pm local time (4pm GMT) to ratify a deal that will lead to the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas (Catherine Philp writes).

First, Netanyahu must bank on his cabinet members, including right-wing coalition partners, to sign off on the deal, despite their opposition to the release of Palestinian terror convicts and other prisoners held by Israel.

The most vocal cabinet opponent this morning was Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister who said he would vote against the deal.

“There is immense fear of the consequences of emptying the prisons and releasing the next generation of terrorist leaders who will do everything to continue to pour rivers of Jewish blood here, God forbid,” Smotrich posted on X. “For this reason alone, we cannot join in short-sighted celebrations or vote in favour of the deal.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, is also expected to vote against. Their votes are not enough to block the deal outright, however. Critically, neither minister has repeated their threat to quit the government, leading to its collapse and elections being called.

Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, welcomed the ceasefire deal, adding that “we must ensure it means an end to the war”.

Falconer said: “This deal offers hope to hostage families who have suffered so much and to Palestinians who have lost their homes and loved ones.

“We must ensure it means an end to the war, aid for those in need now and supports a pathway to a two state solution.”

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees welcomed the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas as a “huge relief”, and said it was ready to flood Gaza with desperately-needed food.

“UNRWA has food, medicines and other basic supplies to go to Gaza. We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months,” the agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it is “time for peace”, following the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Phil Rosenberg, the president, said: “The overnight news of an agreement to bring an end to the nightmare unleashed by Hamas on October 7 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.”

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said the ceasefire deal in Gaza “is hugely welcome”.

She posted on X: “It will be an enormous relief to the families of Israeli hostages, so cruelly captured by Hamas two years ago.”

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said that the Gaza peace plan must be implemented as quickly as possible.

Speaking to reporters at Hillsborough Castle, where she is hosting a Western Balkans summit, she said: “The agreement on the first phase of President [Donald] Trump’s peace initiative is a moment of profound significance, relief and hope.”

She paid tribute to negotiators from the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey who helped mediate the talks.

“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.”

The office of Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said that a ceasefire and agreement to secure the release of hostages in Gaza will take effect only after his cabinet has approved it.

“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,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement ahead of the meeting, which is due to begin at 5pm local time (3pm GMT).

Once approved by the Israeli cabinet, Israel’s forces in Gaza will also have 24 hours to withdraw to an agreed line outside the main population centres, although this is only the first stage of a phased withdrawl under the terms of Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

Celebrations broke out across Gaza and Israel at news of a deal that would bring a pause to fighting and the return of the remaining Israeli hostages, dead and alive. Palestinian prisoners will be freed in return, too, though the final list is not yet confirmed.

There is cautious hope as Hamas and Binyamin Netanyahu agree phase one of Donald Trump’s peace deal. However, time is of the essence if this is to succeed where others have failed.

• Read in full: Hostage release and Israeli withdrawal key to lasting Gaza ceasefire

Saudi Arabia welcomed the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and said it hoped it would lead to peace after two years of devastating war.

A foreign ministry statement said the country 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”.

Israel’s neighbour Jordan also hailed the deal in a statement, saying it should “lead to the end of the war, the implementation of the exchange agreement [of hostages and prisoners] and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid”.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has already made a decision on the peace prize and had its final meeting before Thursday’s agreement between Israel and Hamas, which included a ceasefire and the release of hostages.

“The last meeting of the Nobel Committee took place on Monday,” Erik Aasheim, a spokesman for the Nobel Institute, said. “The final touches were made on Monday, but we never disclose when the Nobel Committee makes its decision.”

Aesheim denied speculation that the Nobel Committee might refrain from awarding the peace prize this year.

“There will be a laureate this year,” he added.

• Will Trump win the Nobel peace prize?
• The five Norwegians with Trump’s Nobel prize dream in their hands

“Blessed are the peacemakers”, announced President Trump on Wednesday night as he revealed that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first stage of the deal he proposed earlier this month. If all goes to plan, the remaining hostages will be released “very soon” (possibly Sunday morning), humanitarian aid will flow into Gaza and Israeli forces will begin their retreat.

For the US president, this is the breakthrough he had been hoping for after eight months of stalled negotiations since his return to the White House. In February, Trump demanded that if Hamas did not release “all of the hostages” then “all bets are off, and let hell break out” — only to have Hamas release just three.

• Read in full: As Trump announces a Gaza peace deal, where does he go from here?

Israel may be forced to release some of those involved in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks to secure the release of Israeli hostages, Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister told Times Radio.

“Unfortunately, we had to make more concessions to make sure and to secure the release of our hostages,” she said. “This is a difficult one because it means that there are going to be hundreds of convicted terrorists with blood on their hands, who murdered innocent children and women and men, that will be released back into society with no restrictions. This is extremely dangerous because some of them have even participated in the 7th of October massacre.”

Haskel said that the release of the most prominent Palestinian leader in jail, Marwan Barghouti, “will be discussed in the next few hours”. Barghouti, currently serving five life sentences for murder, is by far the most popular Palestinian leader, and his name has appeared at the top of every list Hamas has submitted for prisoner releases since October 7, 2023.

Israel has always opposed his release, while his popularity has also posed a threat to the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, travelled to Egypt yesterday to lobby negotiators for his release.

Negotiators from Hamas and Israel sat facing each other in a conference centre in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last night as the terms of the deal were agreed by both sides, according to Gershon Baskin, the Israeli peace negotiator.

“At 2am all of the participants in the negotiations entered a large room with tables and chairs set up in a square. The Israeli delegation sat directly across from the Hamas delegation,” he wrote.

“This was the first time in history that official Israelis and officials from Hamas sat in the same room. The deal was signed and now we have to wait for its full implementations. And now we can begin to breathe again.”

Gershon Baskin, a former Israeli peace negotiator, said: “There are still details that we don’t know but what is important is that this agreement is a declaration of the end of the war — not a temporary ceasefire.

“There are guarantees that the war will not be renewed once Hamas releases all of the hostages. We don’t know the exact details of those guarantees — I had made some suggestions to the US and Hamas negotiators, but I don’t know at this time what has been concluded. We also don’t know for sure the names of the Palestinian prisoners who will be released and what are the terms of their release.”

A former Israeli peace negotiator said this morning is worth celebrating as Hamas and Israel are now “locked into” an agreement that could end the war in Gaza.

Gershon Baskin, who negotiated the release of soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 after years of Hamas captivity, said: “This is definitely a morning for celebration. The war is ending. The killing and destruction will stop … Israelis and Palestinians will be able to breathe again.”

He said of the negotiations in Egypt: “Trump and [the US envoy] Witkoff made sure that the Qatari prime minister, the Egyptian minister of intelligence, and the Turkish head of intelligence were all together for the final push. This was a brilliant move. Trump locked Netanyahu into the agreement and the Qataris, Egyptians and Turks locked Hamas into the agreement.”

Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, welcomed the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas but cautioned that it was “not yet finalised”.

“The developments are encouraging,” Merz told a press conference, adding: “We are confident that a solution can be reached this week.”

President Trump is expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday, where he has been invited to address parliament and speak at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media reports.

The Walla news site said that the planned trip came after a telephone conversation between Trump and Netanyahu on Wednesday.

The Ynet news site said that Trump was also interested in meeting with released hostages, if they are well enough to do so.

Neither the White House nor Israeli government has yet confirmed the visit, but on Wednesday Trump had suggested he might travel to the Middle East “sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday|.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire and demanded that his government should take over the administration of Gaza.

Under President Trump’s ceasefire plan, a non-partisan local government will oversee Gaza under an international board, with the PA eventually taking over once it has undergone reforms.

“President Abbas expressed hope that these efforts would be a prelude to reaching a permanent political solution, as announced by President Trump,” the official PA news agency WAFA reported.

Abbas “reiterated that sovereignty over the Gaza Strip belongs to the State of Palestine, and that the connection between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must be achieved through Palestinian laws and government institutions, through a unified Palestinian administrative committee and Palestinian security forces”, it said.

Trump’s chances of winning the Nobel peace prize have improved only slightly after news of the Israel-Hamas agreement broke, according to an online betting market.

The US president, who has claimed to have already ended or prevented seven wars, was assessed to have a 6 per cent chance of winning the prize, up from 2 per cent on Thursday, according to Polymarket, where users buy or sell shares to predict an outcome.

He lags behind Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a humanitarian organisation, Doctors Without Borders and Yuliya Navalnya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to the site.

The winner of the Nobel prize is announced on Friday.

Turkey’s President Erdogan has thanked Donald Trump for his efforts to end the war following Israel and Hamas agreeing to the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza.

“I am greatly pleased that the Hamas-Israel negotiations, conducted in Sharm El Sheikh with contributions from Türkiye, have resulted in a ceasefire in Gaza,” Erdogan wrote on X.

“I extend my heartfelt thanks, particularly to US President Mr Trump, who demonstrated the necessary political will to encourage the Israeli government towards a ceasefire, as well as to our brotherly nations, Qatar and Egypt, for their significant support in reaching this agreement.”

Erdogan said Turkey would continue to push for a fully independent, sovereign Palestinian state established based on the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.

“On this occasion, I send my most heartfelt greetings to our Palestinian brothers and sisters, who, despite enduring indescribable suffering for two years, living under inhumane conditions, and losing their children, mothers, fathers, relatives, and friends, have not compromised their dignified stance in the face of all these tragedies,” he added.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, has said he has “mixed emotions on a complex morning”.

The leader of the Religious Zionist Party expressed joy over the imminent return of hostages but warned against celebrating a deal that sees the release of Palestinian prisoners, which he said endangers Israel’s security.

He also said the deal should not mean “releasing hostages in exchange for stopping the war, as Hamas thinks and boasts”.

Smotrich, who has been sanctioned by Britain for his hardline views on Gaza and the West Bank, said that “immediately after the hostages return home”, Israel will continue to strive with “all its might for the true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza, so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel”.

However he stopped short of threatening to resign immediately or withdraw his party from Isarel’s coalition government.

A ceasefire in Gaza is due to begin at 12pm local time (10am GMT) when the deal is signed by negotiators in Sharm el-Sheikh, according to Israeli media reports.

Under the terms of Trump’s plan, Hamas then has 72 hours to release all the hostages who remain in Gaza.

Hamas has indicated that it will exchange the 20 living hostages at the same time for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal’s first phase.

The exact timing of the implementation would be announced on Thursday, a source from the group told the AFP news agency.

Hamas said it has handed a list of prisoners it wants released in exchange for the Israeli hostages, pending a final agreement.

Israel and Hamas had disagreed over some of the prisoners the latter had demanded, including Palestinians serving life sentences for attacks on Israel and others captured by Israel as they took part in the October 7 attack.

Hamas “is waiting for the final agreement on the list which will be announced through the media section of the prisoners department”, it said in a statement.

Hamas and Israel had last conducted a major swap in 2011, when Hamas released a captured Israeli soldier in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, who went on to mastermind the October 7 attack.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the agreement to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza and commended the diplomatic efforts of the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.

“Now, all parties must fully uphold the terms of the agreement. All hostages must be released safely. A permanent ceasefire must be established. The suffering must end,” she posted on X, adding that the EU would keep supporting aid deliveries to Gaza and stood ready to help with reconstruction.

Trump told the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza that their loved ones will be returning home on Monday.

Relatives in Israel spoke to the US president and his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, on the phone and thanked him for his role in pushing through a deal for their release.

One 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.”

To cheers from relatives, Trump said: “Thank you very much, you just take care of yourselves. The hostages will come back, they’re all coming back on Monday.”

President Trump was holding a roundtable event with conservative influencers about antifa on Wednesday when secretary of state Marco Rubio entered and passed the president a note.

An AP photographer covering the event zoomed in on White House stationery that read: “We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

Trump said: “I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal on the Middle East, and they’re gonna need me pretty quickly.

“So we’ll take a couple of more questions.”

About two hours from when Rubio passed Trump the note the president took to his social media platform for the announcement.

At hostage square in Tel Aviv, spontaneous bouts of dancing and singing burst out among families of hostages and their supporters.

Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv, arrived in the early morning to the plaza, promising to discuss changing the name of the square permanently to commemorate its new place in Israeli history.

“Who would have thought that dancing and crying go together,” Dani Miran, the father of Omri Miran, who was captured on October 7, 2023, and remains held in Gaza, told the Times. Dani has been at the square most days, growing out his beard as he waits for his 48-year-old son’s return.

“I bless Israel for this new dawn, may there be better days, more beautiful days, for national unity,” Dani Miran said. “Everything was for this moment, for the moment I get to hug my son.”

Each night of his captivity, Omri’s wife, Lishay, has been reading Goodnight Moon to his two daughters Roni, now 5, and Alma, who is 2 and a half, as their father used to do.

Amnesty International secretary-general Agnes Callamard said the deal is “cruelly overdue” but falls short and needs more concrete steps to “dismantle the system of apartheid”.

Callamard called on Israel to immediately end its blockade on Gaza and allow the “unhindered flow” of aid into Gaza.

The Amnesty chief said that for “any lasting ceasefire agreement to succeed”, it must include an “immediate stop to Israel’s genocide”.

“The current plan — the so-called ‘Trump peace plan’ — falls woefully short in this. It fails to demand justice and reparations for victims of atrocity crimes or accountability for perpetrators,” Callamard added.

Since the war started, Israel’s military campaign has left 67,000 dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Israeli negotiators in Egypt are still “working on completing the details of the agreement, with an emphasis on the list of terrorists to be released”, according to The Times of Israel.

Preparing the list is urgent for the security cabinet and government meeting later today, an official told the news site.

The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to convene his security cabinet at about 3pm UK time on Thursday afternoon.

The Israel and Hamas agreement on the earlier stages of a plan to end fighting in Gaza is a “moment of profound relief that will be felt around the world”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

“I welcome the news that a deal has been reached on the first stage of President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza,” said the prime minister.

“This is a moment of profound relief that will be felt all around the world, but particularly for the hostages, their families, and for the civilian population of Gaza, who have all endured unimaginable suffering over the last two years.”

The “tireless diplomatic efforts” of the US, as well as Egypt, Qatar and Turkey were crucial in moving towards peace, he added.

“This agreement must now be implemented in full, without delay, and accompanied by the immediate lifting of all restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“We call on all parties to meet the commitments they have made, to end the war, and to build the foundations for a just and lasting end to the conflict and a sustainable path to a long-term peace. The UK will support these crucial immediate steps and the next stage of talks to ensure the full implementation of the peace plan.”

The Israeli military said that it has begun to prepare to partially pull back troops in Gaza as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.

In a statement, the military says that “per the directives of the political echelon and in accordance with a situation assessment, the IDF has begun operational preparations for the implementation of the agreement”.

As part of the preparations, the army says it is readying to move troops to “adjusted deployment lines in the near future”.

It added: “The IDF continues to be deployed in the area and is preparing for any operational development.”

In a tweet overnight, the IDF said it was also preparing for the return of hostages: “The Chief of the General Staff instructed to prepare for leading the operation to retrieve the hostages, expected to be carried out with sensitivity and professionalism.”

The signing of the agreement on the first stage of Trump’s plan for Gaza is expected to take place at noon in Israel (10am BST), a source briefed on the details of the agreement told Reuters on Thursday.

The ceasefire is expected to come into effect on the ground in Gaza once the deal is signed, the source added.

Hamas has hailed the agreement as a victory and called on President Trump to ensure that Israel follows through.

“Our people’s sacrifices will not go to waste and we are committed to our oaths, and we will not abandon our people’s national rights until freedom and self determination,” it said in a statement.

“The enemy failed to accomplish through negotiations what it failed to accomplish over two years of starvation and genocide,” said Ezzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official.

The United Nations is preparing to scale up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“The United Nations will support the full implementation of the agreement and will scale up the delivery of sustained and principled humanitarian relief, and we will advance recovery and reconstruction efforts in Gaza,” Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said in a statement.

The UN chief urged all parties “to seize this momentous opportunity to establish a credible political path forward towards ending the occupation, recognising 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.

Italy’s foreign minister welcomed the agreement on the first stage of President Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza.

Antonio Tajani said “the peace is near” and that this country was ready to send troops if peacekeeping forces were needed.

“Italy, which has always supported the US plan, is ready to do its part to consolidate the ceasefire, deliver new humanitarian aid, and participate in the reconstruction of Gaza. We are also ready to send troops if an international peacekeeping force is created to reunify Palestine,” he wrote on X.

The Gaza civil defence agency reported strikes on the territory after US president Trump’s announcement that Hamas and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire plan.

“Since the announcement last night of an agreement on a proposed ceasefire framework in Gaza, several explosions have been reported, particularly in areas of northern Gaza,” said one of the agency’s officials, Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, citing “a series of intense airstrikes” on Gaza City.

Hamas said that the deal would ensure the withdrawal of Israeli troops as well as allow for the entry of aid and the exchange of hostages and prisoners. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is expected to take about 24 hours, after which Hamas will be given three days to start releasing the Israeli hostages, a White House official told CBS News.

“We will never abandon our people’s national rights until freedom, independence and self-determination are achieved,” a Hamas spokesman said.

An Israeli spokesman said the government expected the hostages to start being released on Saturday.

Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life-sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after October 7, 2023, according to the peace plan announced by Trump. However, Israel did not address the release of Palestinian prisoners in statements shared on Wednesday evening.

President Trump is expected to fly to Egypt this weekend, the White House said. The president had said earlier on Wednesday that he was considering visiting Gaza.

Negotiations between the US, Israel and Hamas were held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The American mediators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, as well as the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, were all involved in discussions.

Trump later thanked mediators from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey who worked alongside the US to broker the deal.

The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he would convene Israel’s government on Thursday to approve the agreement and “bring all our dear hostages home”. He described the deal as “a great day for Israel”. Once approval is granted, it is expected that the ceasefire will immediately come into effect.

Details of the deal — including the timing of the hostage-prisoner exchange and the line of withdrawal — remain unclear. Nor is there mention of whether Hamas will disarm, a demand that the group has previously rejected.

In the middle of the night Matan Zangauker, the mother an Israeli hostage, headed to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv to celebrate his homecoming. Lighting a firework and celebrating at the site that has been home to mass protests as well as outpourings of grief and hope over the last two years, Zangauker said she had prayed for this very moment.

Emily Damari, the British-Israeli hostage freed earlier this year, showed up at the square in the morning, full of joy and dancing up and down. The good news spread fast as news studios set up at hostage square to interview families they had followed since October 7, 2023.

“The moment we heard about the agreement, we haven’t slept,” Zangauker told reporters. “But it isn’t over until it’s over and our hostages return home and soldiers leave Gaza.”

The forum representing the families to hostages invited President Trump, who led the deal, to address the square on his arrival to the region.

“We simply need the opportunity to look you in the eye and express what words alone cannot fully convey: that you gave us back our families, and with them, our hope,” a letter sent to the President on Thursday read.

Families are planning to organise a civilian convoy that will stand from the point of release of the hostages, at Reim on the Gaza border, all the way to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv to accompany the vehicles that will bring the hostages home.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause fighting in Gaza and begin releasing hostages and prisoners under the “first phase” of a peace plan brokered by President Trump.

Announcing a major breakthrough in the two-year war, Trump said on Wednesday evening that all of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza would be released “very soon” and that Israel’s forces would begin their retreat from the territory to “an agreed-upon line”.

The agreement, which follows days of high-level negotiations in Egypt, will allow for the entry of aid into Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners, Hamas and Qatari officials said in separate statements.

In a post shared on Truth Social, Trump said: “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!”