On Thursday, shortly after 1 AM In Israel, Channel 12's sleepy screening of documentaries by recent film graduates was interrupted by breaking news. The presenter reported that a ceasefire had just been agreed between Israel and Hamas. The broadcast went to the White House; footage showed the president Donald Trump was holding a roundtable with conservative influencers when Secretary of State Marco Rubio handed him a piece of paper.
It was a handwritten note caught by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci that said, “very close.” Both words were underlined. “We need you to approve publishing on Truth Social as soon as possible so you can announce the deal first,” the message said. It soon became official. “This is the post we’ve probably all been waiting for,” the Israeli presenter said. She continued reading Trump's letter in Hebrew. statement“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have signed the first phase of our peace plan,” it said. “This means that ALL hostages will be released very soon and Israel will withdraw its troops to the agreed line, which will be the first step towards a lasting, lasting and everlasting peace.”
News of a ceasefire has been awaited since Trump and Benjamin NetanyahuThe Israeli prime minister held a joint news conference last week to announce his support for the White House. offer end the war, and Hamas responded in a way that Trump framed as a “yes.” But now it was official: the hostages would return home on Monday. It was as if the Israelis collectively inhaled and then exhaled. The square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which has been renamed Hostage Square, erupted into nightly scenes of unchecked revelry. The families of the hostages, who had so far been restrained in their public reaction to the supposed agreement, allowed themselves to cry with relief.
Einav Zangauker and Anat Angrest, whose two sons, both named Matan, are being held captive in the Gaza Strip, hugged each other tightly. “Matan and Matan are returning home!” – Evil One screamed. Zangaucker, who had become a symbol of the families' long struggle to free their loved ones, smiled warily. “Are there instructions on how to accept a child after two years of captivity?” she asked: according to To Haaretz.
Michel Illouz, whose son was killed while being held by Hamas, approached Zangauker and lifted her into the air. To see the jubilation of both parents – one whose son is alive and will soon return home, and the other whose son is expected to return in a body bag – was to witness the full range of emotions that Israelis have felt over the past two years: hope coexisting with grief and the terrible sense that much of the bloodshed could have been prevented. A similar deal was considered several months ago. What began with the worst attack on Israeli soil in the country's history – when Hamas killed two hundred Israelis and took more than two hundred hostages on October 7, 2023 – has led to a terrible war. The death toll in Gaza exceeded sixty-seven thousand, with the enclave so devastated that Israel became something of an international pariah. The overwhelming feeling among Israelis is that their country has become even more isolated on the world stage, even as its people continue to grieve. More than nine hundred Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, and a large number of nearly three hundred thousand army reservists were repeatedly called up for service. Suicide rates in the military are also rising; this year sixteen soldiers died in this way, almost half of them serving in the reserves.
Scenes of relief and celebration began arriving from Gaza before dawn on Thursday. A group of Palestinian children, standing barefoot outside their makeshift tents, jumped up and down and shouted:Hudna!– “Truce!” On the streets of Khan Yunis, dozens of men huddled around a single television, whistling and cheering. The Israeli military has now begun to withdraw from Gaza City and left the Netzarim corridor, which divided the Gaza Strip into two parts, between north and south.
Over the past few days, delegations of Israeli and Hamas officials have attended talks in a ballroom in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss details of the agreement. Images also emerged of Israel's spokesman on the hostage issue, retired General Nitzan Alon, smiling and shaking hands with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani just weeks after Israel attempted to assassinate senior Hamas officials on Qatari soil.
However, despite the handshakes, many obstacles remain unresolved. In particular, there is still uncertainty about who will govern the Gaza Strip after the war and whether Hamas will agree to disarmament. The timing of the Israeli troop withdrawal and its scale also remains to be seen. Also still unanswered is the identity of some of the so-called “hard” Palestinian prisoners whom Israel promised to release in exchange for hostages. The number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel must release has already been agreed upon – about two hundred and fifty prisoners and one thousand seventeen hundred Palestinians detained by Israel since the Hamas attacks on October 7th. But it remains unclear whether Marwan Barghouti, for example, the leader of the Tanzim Fatah militia, seen by many Palestinians as a symbol of resistance and a potential leader who could unite both Fatah and Hamas, will be released. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not release him, but the urgent timetable is such that many red lines on both sides are likely to be violated.
The ceasefire agreement is the crowning achievement of Trump, who appears to have timed it specifically to coincide with Friday's announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a longtime obsession of his. For Netanyahu, who has so far resisted an agreement to release all hostages and end the war, the ceasefire agreement marks a turning point. The political consequences for it are still unknown. While much of the Israeli public has pressed for an agreement to release the hostages and a ceasefire, Netanyahu's extremist coalition partners have threatened to overthrow his government if the war ends and the Israeli military withdraws completely from the Gaza Strip. Shortly after the agreement was announced, Trump called Sean Hannity's Fox News show and said he had just spoken with Netanyahu. “He said, 'I can't believe it. Everybody likes me now,” Trump said of Netanyahu in a report that the Israeli prime minister is unlikely to appreciate. “I said, 'More importantly, they love Israel again,' and they really do. I said, 'Israel can't fight the world, Bibi. They can't fight the world.'”
