WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 Wednesday in announcing the outlines of the biggest breakthrough in months in the two-year-old war.
“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 social media. “All Parties will be treated fairly!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media, “With God’s help we will bring them all home.” Hamas said separately that the deal would ensure the withdrawal of Israeli troops as well as allow for the entry of aid and exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Hamas plans to release all 20 living hostages this weekend, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza.
It was not immediately clear whether the parties had made any progress on thornier questions about the future of the conflict, including whether Hamas will demilitarize, as Trump has demanded, and eventual governance of the war-torn territory. But the agreement nonetheless marked the most momentous development since a deal in January and February that involved the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The deal was solidified in Egypt after days of negotiations centered on a Trump-backed peace plan that he hopes will ultimately result in a permanent end to the war and bring about a sustainable peace in the region.
The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took 251 hostage. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, devastated Gaza and upended global politics.
Trump expressed optimism earlier in the day by saying that he was considering a trip to the Middle East within a matter of days.
Yet another hint of a deal came later in that event when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed Trump a note on White House stationery that read, “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.” Truth Social is the president’s preferred social media platform.
The note prompted Trump to proclaim, “We’re very close to a deal in the Middle East.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was holding a roundtable event with conservative influencers about antifa Wednesday when Secretary of State Marco Rubio, standing in the back corner of the White House’s Blue Room, caught his eye.
He had news for Trump, he said, but it would have to wait until after the media left. Then Rubio passed the president a note.
News photographers covering the event zoomed in on the handwriting on White House stationery that read, “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”
“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,” Trump said. “So we’ll take a couple of more questions.”
The influencer event had already been going on for more than an hour when Rubio first approached. The president invited him to come in, and Rubio whispered something to Trump before handing him the note.
The note’s urgent tone came as Trump’s top Middle East adviser, Steve Witkoff, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and other senior officials joined a third day of peace talks between Israel and Hamas at an Egyptian resort Wednesday — a sign that negotiators aim to dive deeply into the toughest issues of an American plan to end the war in Gaza.
Trump had kicked off the influencer event by telling assembled journalists that he planned to travel to the Middle East “toward the end of the week” and could even “make the rounds” in the region to Egypt and possibly the Gaza Strip as U.S. negotiators closed in on a deal.
Still, even after Rubio passed Trump the note, Trump continued to talk to the influencers and take questions from the media as the secretary of state became visibly anxious.
Nearly 10 minutes after his initial comments about leaving, Trump said: “I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East — although I’m very well represented by our secretary of state. He could probably do an even better job than me, but who knows.”
“We don’t want to take any chances. So we’re going to go and do that,” Trump added.
He then suggested Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stay and take questions in his absence. However, Trump continued to take questions before the event finally broke up without Cabinet members remaining behind.
“We’re gonna get peace in the Middle East,” Trump wrapped by saying. “That’s what we want to do.”