President Donald Trump speaks during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal.
| Photo Credit: AP

A Palestinian man pushes a child on a wheelchair amidst the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Israeli offensive, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 16, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first phase” of his peace plan to pause fighting and release at least some hostages and prisoners, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (October 8, 2025) in announcing the outlines of the biggest breakthrough in months in the two-year-old war.

The ceasefire deal is to be signed on Thursday (October 9, 2025) in Egypt at roughly 0900 GMT (2:30 p.m. IST), a source with knowledge of the agreement told AFP. 

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Hamas will exchange 20 living hostages for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the first phase of a deal to end the war in Gaza, a source within the militant group told AFP. The exchange will take place within 72 hours of the implementation of the agreement. 

The hostages will be released in exchange for 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began on 7 October 2023, the source added.

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An Israeli armoured personnel carrier (APC) manoeuvres on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, Israel August 19, 2025.
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Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, on the day of a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, on January 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied on Wednesday (January 15, 2025) that Hamas had agreed to the Gaza ceasefire proposal from Qatari mediators, after an Israeli official said the Palestinian militant group had given its approval.

Israeli media channels had reported that, following the green light from Hamas, the deal would be formally announced on Thursday (January 16, 2025) and would come into effect on Sunday (January 19, 2025) with the release of the first of the hostages.

However the Prime Minister’s Office said Hamas had not communicated its answer to the proposal.

“Contrary to reports, the Hamas terror organisation has not yet returned its response to the deal,” the Prime Minister’s office said.

Cargo trucks park in Egypt, near the Egyptian-Israeli border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from Israel, on April 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A senior Hamas official told AFP on April 28 that the group would deliver its response to Israel’s latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire on April 29 in Egypt.

“A Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya will arrive in Egypt tomorrow… and deliver the movement’s response” to the Israeli proposal during a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials, said the official who declined to be named.

Mediator Egypt had sent its own delegation to Israel this week to jump-start stalled negotiations even as fighting in the Gaza Strip rages.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been unsuccessfully trying to broker a new Gaza truce deal ever since a one-week halt to the fighting in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Diplomatic efforts have been stepped up in recent days to reach a truce and hostage-release deal.

U.S. news website Axios, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” in Gaza after hostages are released.

It is the first time in the nearly seven-month war that Israeli leaders have suggested they are open to discussing an end to the war, Axios said.

“Hamas is open to discussing the new proposal positively,” another Hamas source close to the negotiations told AFP.

The source added that the group is “keen to reach an agreement that guarantees a permanent ceasefire, the free return of displaced people, an acceptable deal for (prisoner) exchange and ensuring an end to the (Gaza) siege”.

The delegation would also discuss an Egyptian proposal concerning a ceasefire and prisoner exchange as part of the overall deal to stop the fighting in Gaza, the source said.

He said the Egyptian proposal showed “some progress”.

It guarantees absence of Israeli forces on Al-Rashid road, a key artery in the strip, when displaced Palestinians return from the south of the territory to the north, he said.

It also proposes that Israeli forces remain 500 m away from the main Salaheddin highway and ensures that civilians are not subjected to shooting, arrest or detention when they return to their homes.

Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence services, reported “noticeable progress in bringing the views of the Egyptian and Israeli delegations closer”.

Impasse

For several weeks now negotiations to end the war had hit an impasse.

In early April, Hamas had said it was studying a proposal, after talks in Cairo, and Al-Qahera reported progress. Days later Israel and Hamas accused each other of undermining negotiations.

Thousands of Israeli protesters meanwhile have stepped up pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a deal that would see the remaining hostages freed.

The Israeli Army says 129 hostages are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 it says are dead.

Some 250 people were abducted by Palestinian militants when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, Israeli and foreigners, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 34,454 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.