US President Donald Trump has announced that Hamas and Israel have reached an agreement for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire in Gaza. The Republican wrote in Truth Social this Wednesday afternoon (night in Spain) that both parties “have approved the first phase of the Peace Plan” that he himself coined. The president has not specified many more details about the pact but has assured that “all the hostages will be released very soon and Israel will withdraw its troops to an agreed line as the first step towards a strong, lasting and eternal peace.”
“All parties will be treated fairly! This is a great day for the Arab and Muslim world, for Israel, for all neighboring nations and for the United States of America. We thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, who worked with us to make this historic and unprecedented event possible,” the magnate celebrated. They have all met in the Egyptian town of Sharm el Sheikh to negotiate an agreement based on the proposal that Trump presented about ten days ago.
The Palestinian group Hamas confirmed in the early hours of the morning that it had reached an agreement that stipulates the end of the war in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israel from the Strip, the entry of humanitarian aid (blocked for months by Tel Aviv) and an exchange of prisoners – that is, the 48 hostages for more than 200 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
In a statement, Hamas appreciates the efforts of the mediators – Egypt, Qatar and Turkey – and also of President Trump, but asks the president and “the guarantor countries”, as well as several Arab and Islamic countries, to ensure that Israel applies the agreement in full and “not allow it to evade or postpone its application.” During the negotiations, Hamas and the Arab mediators have demanded guarantees that Israel will not resume the offensive on Gaza after the release of the hostages and all have pointed out that only the United States can force the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu to comply with the agreement.
For its part, the Israeli Army has welcomed the signing of the agreement “for the return of the hostages.” In a statement, it does not mention other points of the pact and points out that it has begun “operational preparations for the implementation of the agreement.” It does not specify when the fire will stop.
Qatar, one of the key mediators in the past two years of war, has said details of the deal will be announced later.
Netanyahu has said on social media that “it is a great day for Israel” and that he is going to gather his cabinet to approve the agreement and “return all the hostages home” (48 in total, of which only 20 are alive, according to authorities). “I thank, from the bottom of my heart, President Trump and his team for their mobilization for the sacred task of freeing our hostages,” Netanyahu added, without referring to the ceasefire.
The Israeli Government is expected to give its approval to the agreement this Thursday and, subsequently, order the Army to cease fire. However, the finance minister, the radical Bezalel Smotrich, has said that he will not vote in favor of the agreement.
After announcing the agreement, Trump spoke by phone with the relatives of some captives, who thanked him, as can be seen in a video shared by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “The hostages will be back. They will all be back on Monday,” Trump promised them. Their plan states that “within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, living and deceased, will be returned.”
After the ultimatum issued by the Republican last weekend, Hamas agreed to release the Israeli hostages, abandon power in Gaza and sit down to negotiate on the plan that Trump presented in Washington with Netanyahu on September 29. That plan had been designed without the participation of the Palestinians, which made its acceptance and implementation difficult.
Shortly before the announcement, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, gave one of those moments typical of the epic of American politics, interrupting the round table on anti-fascism chaired by Trump in the State Dining Room of the White House to whisper in his ear about the imminence of the agreement and hand him a written note. “Excuse me, the Secretary of State has given me a note saying that we are very close to an agreement in the Middle East and they are going to need me quickly,” said the magnate.
According to Trump’s plan, post-war Gaza would become a kind of US protectorate, since Trump himself would chair a transitional “board.” According to the plan, this new institution would oversee a government of Palestinian technocrats and would include the participation of politicians from other countries, such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Hamas has already said that the future of Gaza would have to be negotiated after the end of the genocide, with the participation of all Palestinian political and armed factions.
Furthermore, Trump’s plan does not mention the end of the Israeli occupation or the recognition of Palestine as the next steps, it only proposes a very uncertain “path to self-determination and the creation of a Palestinian state.” This Thursday, the Spanish Government celebrated the agreement between Israel and Hamas, but recalled that “the definitive step will be the implementation of the two States.”
From the Palestinian Authority (which governs the Palestinian State recognized by many countries, including Spain), President Mahmoud Abbas has reiterated that “sovereignty over the Gaza Strip belongs to the State of Palestine” and that the Strip must be connected to the West Bank, where the Authority is based. Likewise, he has praised the efforts of Trump and all the mediators to reach the agreement and has shown “the willingness of the State of Palestine to work with mediators and international partners to ensure its success in order to achieve stability and a lasting and just peace in accordance with international law.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
