Israel, Hamas agree 'first phase' of Gaza ceasefire

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US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he believed all the captives held in Gaza, including the bodies of those deceased, will be "coming back" Monday after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of his peace plan.

"So much is happening to get the hostages freed, and we think they'll all be coming back on Monday, so it looks like that's the thing, and that'll include the bodies of the dead," Trump said in a phone interview on Fox News.

(AFP)

Hamas has submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released under the terms of the deal, senior Hamas official Zaher Jabareen said in a statement.

"We await the final agreement on the names," he said.

Israel is expected to release 2,000 prisoners and detainees in exchange for the Israeli captives in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a Gaza captives-for-ceasefire deal hammered out in Egypt represented "a great day for the world."

"The whole world has come together on this one, Israel, every country has come together. This has been a fantastic day," Trump told Reuters in a brief telephone interview.

"This is a great day for the world. This is a wonderful day, a wonderful day for everybody," he said.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

The first phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is to be signed Thursday in Egypt at roughly 0900 GMT, a source with knowledge of the agreement told AFP.

"The deal will be formally signed around midday (local time) on Thursday in Egypt" a source with knowledge of the agreement said on condition of anonymity.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Hamas will exchange 20 living captives for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the first phase of a deal to end the war in Gaza, a source within the armed group told AFP Thursday.

The exchange will take place within 72 hours of the implementation of the agreement, which is expected to be signed on Thursday, the source familiar with the negotiations source said.

The captives 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.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Israel will withdraw from the majority of Gaza under the terms of the first-phase agreement sealed earlier this evening, sources familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press.

A map shared by the US ahead of the talks suggested that Israel would remain in control of more than half of the territory after Hamas's release of the captives.

Netanyahu invited Trump to speak in front of the Knesset during a phone call this evening after the deal was announced.

The Israeli prime minister thanked Trump for his efforts to broker the ceasefire, according to a statement from Netanyahu's office.

Trump is expected to travel to the region in the coming days.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel and Hamas to uphold the ceasefire in a statement welcoming the agreement.

"I welcome the announcement of an agreement to secure a ceasefire & hostage release in Gaza, based on the proposal put forward by @POTUS. I commend the diplomatic efforts of the United States, Qatar, Egypt & Türkiye in brokering this desperately needed breakthrough," he wrote in a post on X.

He continued: "I urge all concerned to abide fully by the terms of the agreement. All hostages must be released in a dignified manner. A permanent ceasefire must be secured. The fighting must stop once & for all. Immediate & unimpeded entry of humanitarian supplies & essential commercial materials into Gaza must be ensured. The suffering must end."

I welcome the announcement of an agreement to secure a ceasefire & hostage release in Gaza, based on the proposal put forward by @POTUS. I commend the diplomatic efforts of the United States, Qatar, Egypt & Türkiye in brokering this desperately needed breakthrough.

I urge all…

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 9, 2025

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his government on Thursday to approve the Gaza ceasefire agreement, he said in a statement.

"A great day for Israel," he added. 

An Israeli source has told CNN that the Israeli captives could be released on Saturday or Sunday, following the ceasefire agreement announced earlier this evening.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a short statement following the announcement of the agreement.

"With God’s help, we will bring them all home," he said, in reference to the Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Hamas has released a statement calling on US president Donald Trump to ensure that Israel sticks to the agreement.

The Palestinian armed group said it had agreed with mediators on a deal to end the war, withdraw Israeli troops, release the captives, and allow aid into the strip.

It thanked Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and the US for helping to broker the agreement.

"We call on President Trump and the guarantor states of the agreement...to compel the occupation government to fully implement the agreement and not to evade or delay its implementation," it said.

Qatar's foreign ministry has announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed on "all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement".

This will "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid," ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari wrote on X.

"The details will be announced later," he added.

Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement of the "first phase" of a ceasefire in Gaza, US president Donald Trump has announced.

"I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"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," he said.

We'll bring you more as we get it.

US President Donald Trump received a note during a White House meeting Wednesday saying a Gaza deal was "very close" and seeking his approval for a social media announcement.

"Very close," said the note handed to Trump by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, seen by an AFP photographer in the room. "We need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first."

The US president left the event soon after Rubio passed him the note, telling reporters that he was needed "pretty quickly".

(AFP)

US president Donald Trump has cut short an event in the White House after being told that Hamas and Israel are close to agreeing a deal to end the war.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio passed the president a note as he was speaking during a roundtable event about Antifa.

"I've just been given a note by the secretary of state saying we're very close to a deal in the Middle East and they're going to need me pretty quickly," he said after reading the note.

A United Nations staff member who was recently detained by Yemen's Houthi authorities has been released, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

"We continue to urge the de facto authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all UN and humanitarian workers who are supporting the most vulnerable people in Yemen," Dujarric said.

He did not provide information about the timing or circumstances of the detention, which comes after nine other UN personnel were detained by Houthis.

Dujarric said 53 UN staff remain detained by Houthis, adding that some have been held since 2021.

(Reuters)

The Israeli military said on Wednesday evening it shot down two drones close to the Israeli-Egyptian border that were launched by the Houthis in Yemen.

US president Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the ongoing Gaza peace talks are going "very well" and confirmed that he may travel to the region if a deal is reached.

"Negotiations are going along very well," he said at the White House.

"I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday," he said. "'Peace for the Middle East,' that's a beautiful phrase, and we hope it's going to come true, but it’s very close, and they’re doing very well."

US president Donald Trump could travel to the Middle East if a Gaza ceasefire deal is reached, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Washington.

"The president will have to make that decision, but I anticipate that he would be interested in doing so, if the timing could work. Good progress has been made today, events are moving in a good direction, but there’s still some work to be done," he said.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth is reporting that Israel has ruled out releasing high-profile prisoners Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Sa'adat under an captive-prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

The Palestinian armed group has pushed for their release in return for freeing the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.

"Barghouti’s fate remains absolutely central to these talks," a source close familiar with the discussions told The Times of Israel.

Barghouti, a senior leader in Fatah, has been in prison for more than two decades and is seen by many as a potential successor to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. In 2002, he was given five consecutive life sentences and an additional 40 years after being convicted of multiple charges of murder and attempted murder. The trial was condemned internationally for being unfair.

Ahmad Sa'adat, the former head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was arrested in 2002 in connection with the assassination of an Israeli minister. In 2008 he was sentenced to 3o years in prison.

Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar has criticised planned talks in Paris tomorrow to discuss Gaza's future as "unnecessary and harmful".

At least a dozen countries will attend the meeting, which will focus on how to implement the US peace plan and form a new government for the shattered territory.

"France’s new initiative, concocted behind Israel’s back at the sensitive timing of the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, is unnecessary and harmful, just like its predecessors," Saar wrote on social media.

He accused French president Emmanuel Macron of trying to undermine the ceasefire talks in Egypt and suggested that the meeting was being held to distract from the ongoing political crisis in France.

Israel has urged the United States to skip a meeting to discuss Gaza's post-war future due to take place in Paris on Thursday, according to Axios.

The US news outlet reported that Israeli officials claimed that the US's attendance could undermine the ongoing ceasefire talks in Egypt.

At least a dozen countries will attend the meeting, which will discuss how Gaza will be governed after the war and how Trump's peace plan could be implemented.

Spanish lawmakers on Wednesday approved the enshrinement in law of an arms embargo on Israel that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez introduced to end what he called "the genocide in Gaza".

Parliament backed by 178 votes to 169 the decree announced in September by Sanchez, one of the staunchest critics among world leaders of Israel's devastating two-year-old war in the Palestinian territory.

(AFP and TNA staff)

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt are close to coming to an agreement within the next two days, according to the Times of Israel citing a Palestinian source.

Likewise, an Israeli source told Al-Arabiya that negotiators are "cautiously approaching" an agreement on the first phase of the plan.

The office of Israel Katz, Israel's defence minister, said that the Israeli army repelled an attack by Hamas fighters in Gaza City following a visit by Katz to the south of Gaza City.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that negotiations to stop the war in Gaza had made "a lot of headway" and that a ceasefire would be declared if they reached a positive outcome.

Fidan said the talks in Egypt, in which Ankara is taking part, are focused on securing a ceasefire, exchanging hostages and prisoners, allowing more aid and coordinating a timetable for a withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Turkish officials on Wednesday called for release of three lawmakers detained after Israeli forces intercepted their boats heading for Gaza.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said all nine of its boats were intercepted by the Israeli army as they attempted to approach Gaza to challenge a naval blockade.

Turkey's foreign ministry slammed the interception as an "act of piracy", describing it as "an attack on civil activists, including Turkish citizens and members of parliament".

"This is a serious violation of international law. Our three MPs and all activists illegally detained must be released immediately and unconditionally," Sena Nur Celik Kanat, a lawmaker from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP party, told AFP.

Celik Kanat was among more than 80 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe who signed a letter calling for the activists' release.

Palestinian journalists and local officials rallied against Israeli attacks on Gaza media workers Wednesday in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, AFP journalists reported.

Dozens of journalists and Palestinian officials marched towards the city's UN headquarters carrying coffins bearing the names and photos of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel's war started on 7 October 2023.

"All of them, every single one of them has his own story," said Nasser Abu Baker, head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, which organised the event.

Among the names was Anas Al-Sharif, a prominent correspondent for Qatari news channel Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip, who was killed in August in an Israeli air strike outside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

After the speeches, Abu Baker said he would hand over a letter to the UN representative in Ramallah asking for the Secretary General Antonio Guterres to take measures "to protect our journalists in Gaza because they are daily under the fire, under the bombing strike, in a very dangerous situation".

Abu Baker said that his syndicate had reported the killing of 252 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Clashes have erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian youth in the occupied West Bank town of Burin after Israeli forces stormed the town, according to Al Jazeera.

According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces fired on civilians and at property.

Barcelona rejected a request from an Israeli basketball team to train at their facilities next week, a club source confirmed to AFP on Wednesday.

The Catalan club said it was for logistical and public order reasons that they would not allow Hapoel Jerusalem to train on their Palau Blaugrana court before a match against Baxi Manresa on 15 October in the EuroCup competition.

"We don't want to have any problems," explained the club source, after an increase in protests against Israel because of the Gaza war.

The source said on that day preparations would also begin for a Barca handball match in the Champions League, and that Manresa were obliged to allow their opponents use of their court.

Valencia Basket are due to face Hapoel Tel Aviv, another Israeli team, in the EuroLeague competition on the same day.

The pro-Palestinian BDS movement, calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, has called for that match to be cancelled.

Six South African activists who were detained by Israel while attempting to reach Gaza as part of an aid flotilla said Wednesday they were subjected to harsher treatment than other detainees because of South Africa's role in a genocide case against Israel.

Speaking after their return, the activists, who include the grandson of Nelson Mandela, said they were singled out after Israeli guards noticed that they were from South Africa. Two Muslim women among the group said they had their hijabs ripped off their heads and were forced to strip naked in front of Israeli soldiers.

Mandla Mandela, the grandson of South Africa's anti-apartheid icon and first Black president, said the South African activists on the flotilla were "harshly dealt with" because their country had confronted Israel over its actions in Gaza by launching the case at the International Court of Justice.

Their treatment was "because we are a nation that dared through our government to take apartheid Israel to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court and hold them accountable," Mandla Mandela said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a ministerial meeting on Thursday in Paris, where European, Arab, and other states will gather to discuss Gaza's post-war transition, according to three diplomatic sources.

According to a note sent to delegates, the meeting will follow up on a conference on a "two-state solution" at the United Nations and is intended to agree on joint actions to contribute to the US plan for Gaza. The two-state solution would involve an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Countries attending on Thursday will include France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey, and Canada.

The note had said Washington's participation would depend on advances in the negotiations in Egypt.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Trump's special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were now in Sharm El-Sheikh, and that the word he had received since their arrival was "very encouraging".

He said the US envoys came "with a strong will, a strong message, and a strong mandate from President Trump to end the war in this round of negotiations".

Sisi also invited Trump himself to travel to Egypt for a signing ceremony if a deal were reached.

Saudi Arabia condemned on Wednesday a visit by Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir to the Al-Aqsa compound, a disputed area in occupied east Jerusalem home to Islam's third-holiest site that is also Judaism's holiest place.

Riyadh voiced its "condemnation of the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli officials and settlers under the protection of the occupation forces, reiterating its strongest condemnation of the continued attacks on the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The grandson of late South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday after being detained and then deported by Israel, which prevented the flotilla he was part of delivering aid to Gaza.

Mandla Mandela, who returned home with four other South Africans, said he and the group he was with were held in an Israeli prison for six days before being released via Jordan.

"We were handcuffed with cable ties tied tightly behind our backs, taken off our boats, put on the platform and paraded for all ... to see," Mandela, 51, said at the airport, where he was greeted by supporters waving Palestinian flags.

"But it's nothing compared to what Palestinians have been subjected to on a daily basis," he said, referring to Israel's detention of Palestinians that has substantially increased since its war on Gaza began.

Israel says reports of hunger in Gaza are exaggerated and dismissed the flotilla as a publicity stunt benefiting Hamas. It has denied mistreating the hundreds of people it detained, who included Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that over the last 24 hours, Israeli attacks have killed 10 Palestinians and injured a further 61. 

The ministry added that the total death toll from Israel's war on the enclave stands at 67,183 killed and 169,841 wounded.

Independent Palestinian factions are set to join with Hamas and negotiators in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh, according to the Times of Israel, citing Saudi channel Al-Hadath.

According to the report, a delegation from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad will join.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned a visit by Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Al-Aqsa compound on Wednesday morning.

"This deliberate provocation... reflects the fascist mentality governing the (Israeli) government, which intentionally violates the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and the feelings of Muslims worldwide," Hamas wrote in a statement.

The compound contains Islam's third-holiest site and is Judaism's holiest place, revered as the site of the first and second Jewish temples.

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue "complete victory" over Hamas in Gaza.

In a video on the edge of one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East, Ben-Gvir said that two years after the October 7 2023 Hamas attack, Israel was "winning" at the Jerusalem compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

"Every house in Gaza has a picture of the Temple Mount, and today, two years later, we are winning on the Temple Mount. We are the owners of the Temple Mount," Ben-Gvir said in the video released by his Jewish Power party.

"I only pray that our prime minister will allow a complete victory in Gaza as well - to destroy Hamas, with God's help we will return the hostages, and we will win a complete victory," Ben-Gvir said.

His remarks were released as Israel and Hamas are deep in indirect negotiations in Egypt to release all remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza and end the war there.

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that negotiations held in Egypt for an end to the war in Gaza were advancing in a "spirit of optimism".

"The mediators are making great efforts to remove any obstacles to the implementation of the ceasefire, and a spirit of optimism prevails among all parties," Taher al-Nunu told AFP from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where indirect talks began on Monday between Israel and Hamas.

The Palestinian militant group submitted a list of prisoners it wants to be released in the first phase of the truce "in accordance with the agreed-upon criteria and numbers," Nunu added. In exchange, Hamas is set to release 47 hostages, both alive and dead, it seized in its 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel.

US President Donald Trump asked Turkey to "persuade" Hamas to accept his plan for ending the Gaza war, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a transcript shared by his office Wednesday.

"Both during our visit to the United States and in our most recent phone call, we explained to Mr. Trump how a solution could be achieved in Palestine. He specifically requested that we meet with Hamas and persuade them," Erdogan told Turkish journalists on board a plane returning from Azerbaijan.

Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem on Wednesday morning, his spokesperson told AFP, as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas were being held in Egypt on ending the Gaza war.

The visit is Ben Gvir's eleventh as minister to the area which contains Islam's third-holiest site and is Judaism's holiest place, revered as the site of the first and second Jewish temples.

Turkey's foreign ministry on Wednesday lashed out at an "act of piracy" after Israeli forces intercepted several more boats heading for Gaza, saying several Turkish lawmakers were on board.

"The intervention in international waters against the Freedom Flotilla... is an act of piracy," it said in a statement, describing it as "an attack on civil activists, including Turkish citizens and members of parliament".

A group of vessels attempting to deliver aid to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters on Wednesday, the coalition behind the convoy said, the second such interception in the past week.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is an international network of pro-Palestinian activist groups that organises civilian maritime missions aimed at breaking Israel's blockade of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the enclave.

The flotilla's vessels and passengers were safe, had been transferred to an Israeli port and were expected to be deported promptly, Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement on X.

"Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing," the ministry said.

The incident was the second such event in recent days, after Israel had intercepted about 40 vessels and detained more than 450 activists in an aid convoy, the Global Sumud Flotilla, that was also attempting to deliver supplies to Gaza.

The FFC said Israeli forces "hijacked the humanitarian fleet," adding that the "ships were illegally intercepted ... Participants - humanitarians, doctors and journalists from across the world - have been taken against their will and are being held in unknown conditions."

"The Israeli military has no legal jurisdiction over international waters," it said. "Our flotilla poses no harm."