Israel and Hamas begin ceasefire after hostage release deal is approved

Trump expressed optimism about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at a gathering of reporters in the Oval Office. Asked about the ceasefire, Trump said, “I think it’ll hold. Yeah, I think it’ll hold. They’re all tired of the fighting.”

Trump also said he will be speaking at the Knesset in Israel and will travel to Egypt.

Thousands of people could be seen moving north in Gaza after the ceasefire was announced today and many will face scenes of destruction after Israel’s devastating two-year bombing campaign across the enclave.

Trump was also optimistic about the reconstruction of Gaza during the press gathering. “Gaza is going to be rebuilt, and you have some very wealthy countries, as you know, over there, and it would take a small fraction of their, their wealth to do that, but, and I think they want to do it,” he said.

A senior Hamas official, Mousa Abu Marzouk, told Al Jazeera in an interview today that the Palestinian people will not be stripped of their weapons because they are under Israeli occupation. He did not explain if that was the official position of the group.

The disarmament of Hamas is a key part of the peace plan that Trump has proposed and will likely be one of the most difficult issues to resolve in any future negotiations.

Marzouk also said that Israel has not violated the ceasefire deal but the Israeli military still controls over 50% of Gaza’s territory, and that will not be acceptable in the future.

Displaced Gazans were hopeful and wary today after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began.

Hannin Musa told NBC News that despite all the loss and destruction in Gaza, she is happy about the ceasefire.

“Because we still survive,” Musa said. “Palestinians deserve life and nothing but happiness is appropriate for them.”

Musa explained that returning home is not easy for Palestinians in Gaza, where homes have been razed and essentials, like water and food, are unavailable.

Musa was also skeptical about the ceasefire deal and whether it will “guarantee justice.”

“We need guarantee all of them adhere to the terms of the plan,” she said.

Ahmad Al Khatib expressed the same skepticism about the ceasefire there have been previous agreements that Israel did not adhere to.

Al Khatib had a message for Trump, whose efforts to secure the deal he said he appreciates.

“We need some guarantees, please, we need some guarantees,” he said.

Dozens of bodies were recovered from the rubble in Gaza City since the ceasefire went into effect today, according to officials in the enclave.

“More than 100 martyrs were recovered today from the Israeli army’s withdrawal sites in Gaza City, and medical crews were unable to reach many bodies due to the security risks in the area,” Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, told NBC News.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense agency, said dozens of bodies remain buried under the rubble in Gaza City.

“Our crews are finding it difficult to reach them due to the presence of occupying forces in some areas of the city,” he said in a post on Telegram.

Trump is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday evening and will address the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday, according to a White House official. 

After that, he will travel to Egypt to participate in a signing ceremony on the Gaza peace deal, the official said. Trump is also planning to gather with other world leaders while there, but those details are still being finalized. 

The president is then expected to return to Washington.

The ceasefire that went into effect today between Israel and Hamas has brought “a much-needed, long-overdue glimmer of hope for children and families in Gaza,” the United Nations Children’s Fund said in a statement.

“In the last two years, a staggering 64,000 children have reportedly been killed or maimed across the Gaza Strip,” the agency said. UNICEF is asking Israel to “open as many entry points as possible” to allow aid into Gaza.

“A genuine ceasefire must be more than words; it must be sustained and respected, placing children’s rights at the very centre,” the agency said.

Hamas official Basem Naim thanked President Donald Trump for his role in securing a ceasefire deal between the group and Israel.

“Without the personal interference of President Trump, in this case, I don’t think it would happen to reach this end, the end of the war,” Naim said during an interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim. “Therefore yes, we thank President Trump and his personal efforts to interfere and to pressure Israel to make an end of this massacre and slaughtering.”

When asked about plans for an interim supervisory body in Gaza that could include former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Naim said Blair would not be “welcomed, or will be a very positive input in this case.”

“We still remember his role in causing the killing of thousands or millions of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, in Iraq,” Naim said. “We can remember very well.”

Palestinians were seen arriving in Gaza City after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect. The Israeli military said the truce deal came into effect at 12 p.m. local time.

Israel posted a list of 250 Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages, as part of the ceasefire deal.

All the prisoners on the list are men, ranging in age from 21 to 64. Some have been in prison since the 1980s and 1990s, and a few have been in prison since they were minors or teenagers. It is not clear if they were ever put on trial.

Many of the men have been accused of being affiliated with Hamas and charged with “intentional causing of death,” while others were charged with “conspiracy to intentionally cause death.” Some were charged with throwing stones. It is not clear how Israel came to the conclusion on which prisoners to release.

The length of the prisoners’ sentences were also not clear, and were marked “99-99-9999” on the list.

There were almost 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons as of April, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office. This includes at least 400 children and 29 women.

According to the Prisoners’ Media Office, released prisoners have said that they were raped, brutally tortured and medically neglected while in Israeli prisons.

The leaders of the E3 nations released a statement today welcoming the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the release of hostages and the resumption of aid into Gaza.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also praised U.S. President Donald Trump, Egypt and Qatar for their role in securing the ceasefire.

The leaders asked that the U.N. Security Council “give its full backing” to the next stages of the ceasefire, and said they will support “substantive humanitarian aid packages through UN agencies to be delivered” to Gaza “as soon as the ceasefire enters into effect.”

Palestinians returning to Gaza City today attempted to tear down the barriers at the Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that divides northern Gaza from the south, which Israel has used as a military zone during the war.

An agreement has yet to be reached regarding the list of Palestinian prisoners who will be freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for Israeli hostages as part of the ceasefire deal that went into effect today, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office.

Lists that have been circulating are inaccurate, the media office said.

“The occupation is promoting these lists with the aim of pressuring and disrupting the course of negotiations,” the media office said in a statement. “Official lists, if an agreement is reached, will be announced and published through the platforms of the Prisoners’ Media Office.”

There are almost 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons as of April 2025, according to the media office. This includes at least 400 children.

Today’s ceasefire is the third major cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas since the conflict began two years ago.

The first ceasefire began six weeks into the war, on Nov. 24, 2023. An initial four-day pause was agreed to and extended twice, during which 70 Israeli hostages held in Gaza were exchanged for 210 Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Fighting resumed that Dec. 1.

The two sides agreed to a second ceasefire lasting 42 days in January. The pause was planned to be the first phase of a longer-term deal, during which negotiators would seek to bring a permanent end to the war.

In that ceasefire, 38 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages were released in multiple rounds of exchanges, as well as the bodies of eight hostages. A total of 1,755 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel. The ceasefire also saw a notable increase in deliveries of humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well as the return of thousands of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza.

The ceasefire ended abruptly March 18, when Israel launched a wave of airstrikes on Gaza. Israel and the Trump administration blamed Hamas for the breakdown, saying the militant group refused Israel’s demand to release more hostages in exchange for the resumption of talks. Hamas rejected the demand as it had not been part of the original January ceasefire agreement.

In early March 2024, Ruby and Hagit Chen received terrible news about their son, who was thought to be a Hamas hostage. Israeli military officials told them that Itay Chen had actually been killed during the Oct. 7 attacks, and that his body was taken into Gaza.

The Chens were shaken by the news. But without physical evidence that their son was dead, they continued to hold out hope that he is alive. They are praying that he may be among the captives released early next week as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

In a phone interview today, Ruby Chen said he feels a “mixed bag of emotions — excitement, anticipation and anxiety [about] who is coming out.”

“We feel this is the beginning of the end of this life chapter,” he said. “Unfortunately, there will be those families that will not get their loved ones back in the next 72 hours. We just do not know who.”

Thousands of officers are expected to be deployed along key routes for Trump’s visit to Israel on Monday, Israel’s police force has said.

Trump is expected to make a whirlwind visit to Israel, where he has been invited to address the country’s parliament, the Knesset.

The Israeli police force said in a post on X that it was finalizing Operation “Blue Shield 6” ahead of the visit.

As part of those preparations, it said, thousands of Israeli police and border police officers would be deployed along key routes during the state visit to “ensure public safety, order, and smooth traffic flow.”

Trump said yesterday he could visit Egypt for the formal signing of the ceasefire deal. The president said he would “probably” be in the region when the remaining hostages in Gaza are released.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and former White House adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for their efforts in achieving a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

The ceasefire and hostage deal are part of a plan backed by Trump that could end the conflict in Gaza.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was taken captive Oct. 7, 2023, with her body recovered almost a year later, said today was one of his “happiest” days after he learned a truce had come into effect and that hostages still held in Gaza would soon be freed.

“I feel like my own relatives are coming back home. These people have become my brothers,” Dickmann, who has been outspoken advocate for an end to the war in Gaza, said of the other hostages’ families, speaking from “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv.

Dickmann said the credit for the breakthrough belonged solely to Trump in his eyes.

“Netanyahu did not bring about this deal. Netanyahu did not want it. Trump brought it,” he told NBC News this morning in a voice note. “He deserves, I believe, 48 Nobel Prizes,” he said, referring to the total number of hostages expected to be released, though only 20 are still thought to be alive. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

The Israeli military say that troops have pulled back to agreed lines, starting the first phase of Trump’s peace plan to end the war in Gaza.

Now, Hamas has three days to gather and free all of its hostages, 20 believed to be alive and 28 bodies, and eventually give up power.

U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, has confirmed Israeli forces have completed the “first phase” of their withdrawal in Gaza, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on X.

Witkoff said Israeli forces had completed their withdrawal to the “yellow line,” referring to the agreed-upon withdrawal line for the first phase of the deal, at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET).

The White House had earlier this month shared a social media post by Trump that included a map appearing to show a yellow boundary outlining what he described as an “initial withdrawal line,” indicating an eastward withdrawal by Israeli forces across much of the Gaza Strip.

It was not immediately clear whether that was still the agreed-upon boundary. Asked for clarity, the IDF declined to comment on the matter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s offensive in Gaza, saying it was both military and diplomatic pressure on Hamas that resulted in an initial agreement on a plan to end the war and see hostages released.

“I believed that if we applied heavy military pressure on Hamas — together with heavy diplomatic pressure — we could also bring back all our hostages. And that is exactly what we did,” he said today in a statement to the media. “But I also tell you — to put it mildly, it was not easy. I had to stand up to enormous pressures, both from home and from abroad.”

Israel has been under extreme pressure internationally to end the conflict, including from the U.S., over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and a starvation crisis in the enclave.

The Israeli military has warned Palestinians in Gaza not to approach its troops or certain areas in the enclave’s north, saying doing so could expose them “to danger.”

In an “urgent statement,” IDF Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee warned that Israeli troops would remain deployed in certain areas in the Gaza Strip. He said Palestinians should not approach forces until further notice.

He said movement from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip was permitted via Rashid Road and Salah al-Din Road, but warned that approaching the areas of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Shuja’iyya, and “troop deployment areas” would be “extremely dangerous.”

In the Gaza Strip’s south, Adraee said, it would also be extremely dangerous to approach the area of the Rafah crossing, as well as around the Philadelphi Route and “all troop deployment areas” in Khan Younis. He further warned that fishing, swimming and diving in the maritime area along the entire enclave would be “high risk.”

“We warn against entering the sea in the coming days,” he said, adding it was also “prohibited to approach Israeli territory and the buffer zone.”

Thousands of people could be seen moving north in Gaza in the moments after the Israeli military announced that a ceasefire had come into effect.

In a livestream published online by Reuters, a large mass of people could be seen gathered in central Gaza, with the crowd appearing to be waiting at a certain point.

The crowd can then be seen moving north along the Mediterranean coast, with thousands appearing to make their way along the coastline.

Many will be returning to their homes, or at least where their homes once stood, in the north, after hundreds of thousands of people were forcibly displaced south. Others will look to reunite with their loved ones — or search for those killed and still buried under the rubble.

The ceasefire agreement has now come into effect in Gaza, the Israeli military has announced.

The IDF announced that the ceasefire came into effect at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET).

It said troops had begun positioning themselves along the updated deployment lines in preparation for the ceasefire and the expected release of hostages held in Gaza.

The IDF said troops would remain deployed in the area, however, and would “continue to remove any immediate threat.”

Humanitarian groups expressed cautious optimism as they welcomed the expected ceasefire, with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross saying it could mark a “turning point in two years of unimaginable horror.”

“It offers a vital chance to save lives and ease suffering,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljari said in a statement. The organization’s teams in Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank are expected to support the implementation of the plan by helping return Israeli hostages held in Gaza, and Palestinian prisoners held by Israeli authorities.

Oxfam America President and CEO Abby Maxman welcomed the ceasefire deal and planned hostage release. But, she said, “while some families will be able to once again embrace their long-missing loved ones, we mourn for those who will never again be able to. “

Medical Aid for Palestinians, meanwhile, said the expected ceasefire marked a “vital and long-overdue step” as it called for “aid, access and accountability.”

The group called for a permanent peace, “allowing for the urgent alleviation of the catastrophic humanitarian and healthcare crisis.”

The Israel Defense Forces said its troops in the Gaza Strip continued to adjust their “operational positions” overnight ahead of the expected ceasefire.

Under the plan to end the war in Gaza and see hostages released, Israeli forces are expected to withdraw to an agreed-upon line.

The IDF shared footage appearing to show troops on the move overnight. As the sun rose, they could be seen stationed in an unidentified area, with Israeli flags hoisted up from military vehicles.

Smoke continued to rise over Gaza this morning as Israeli forces appeared to continue their offensive in the enclave ahead of a looming ceasefire expected to come into effect within 24 hours.

Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing over central Gaza in a livestream published online by Reuters, showing the area in realtime.

It comes in the hours after the Israeli government ratified the deal, agreeing on the first phase of Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.

The U.S. military is preparing options to deploy as many as 200 U.S. troops to Israel to support stabilization in Gaza and the flow of humanitarian aid and security assistance into the enclave, two U.S. officials familiar with the planning said.

The U.S. troops will stay in Israel, where they will support logistics, transportation, engineering and planning, the officials said.

“They will not be in Gaza. No U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza,” one of the officials said.

Read the full story here.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas had to accept Trump’s peace deal at the meeting of the Israeli government focused on “the approval of the hostages release framework,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.

“Here we are today because Hamas had to, they had to, do this deal. The pressure was on them. They were backed up. And you’ve got the bigger army. You were making inroads, and that’s what led to this deal,” Witkoff said in the video, seated at a table with Netanyahu and Jared Kushner.

President Donald Trump’s personal touch — both as a heavy hand and a gentle guide — played a pivotal role at key moments in the development of a Middle East peace deal that promises to bring an end to Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, current and former officials in the United States and other nations told NBC News.

Trump announced yesterday that the “first phase” of the plan to end the conflict in Gaza had been agreed to, with a pause in fighting and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

Trump called it “a great deal” in a brief interview with NBC News this morning. “Everybody is happy,” he said.

The deal accelerated over several crucial moments — Israel’s strike on Qatar, discussions on the sidelines of the recent United Nations General Assembly in New York City and Jared Kushner’s conversations with his father-in-law, these sources said.

Read the full story here.

Palestinians in Rafah praised Arab mediators and Trump for their efforts to end the war, with one man expressing relief that “this genocide against the Palestinian people has been halted.”

Another man said: “Honestly, every year feels like 10 years in the history of the Palestinian people.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early today local time that his government has approved the historic deal to end the conflict in Gaza, after a brutal two-year war that has ravaged the Palestinian enclave and sparked a global outcry.

“The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages — the living and the deceased,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on X.

Under the terms of the deal, the ceasefire should take effect within 24 hours.

The deal includes the release of all living and dead hostages. Furthermore, Israel is to release 250 life-sentence prisoners and 1,700 Palestinians detained after Oct. 7, 2023. 

The agreement also stipulates that Hamas will lay down arms, Israeli troops will withdraw from the territory, and humanitarian aid will be delivered. 

Read the full story here.