Israel, Hamas agree to ‘first phase’ of Gaza truce, hostage-prisoner release

Israel and Hamas have agreed to pause fighting in Gaza and release at least some hostages and prisoners in an agreement that was put forward by the Trump administration and would represent the biggest breakthrough in months in the devastating 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,” US President Donald 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.”

All living hostages may be released by weekend

Hamas said it had agreed to a deal that would lead to the end of the war in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the entry of aid into Gaza and the exchange of prisoners for hostages.

Hamas called on Trump and the mediators to ensure that Israel implements all the provisions of the deal “without disavowal or delay in implementation of what was agreed upon.”

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.

Also read: Israeli destruction of Gaza shatters myth of ‘modern, progressive’ world

Hamas seeks firm guarantees

The United States’s top Middle East adviser, the prime minister of Qatar, and other senior officials joined the third day of peace talks between Israel and Hamas in an Egyptian resort on Wednesday (October 7), a sign that negotiators aim to dive deeply into the toughest issues of an American plan to end the war in Gaza.

Hamas says it’s seeking firm guarantees from mediators that Israel won’t resume its military campaign in the Palestinian territory after the militant group releases all the remaining hostages.

All sides have expressed optimism for a deal to end the two-year war that has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and most of the Gaza Strip destroyed. But key parts of the peace plan still haven't been agreed to, including a requirement that Hamas disarm, the timing and extent of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and the creation of an international body to run the territory after Hamas steps down.

Trump upbeat

In a sign the talks were going well, Trump said on Wednesday he’s considering a trip to the Middle East within a matter of days.

“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week,” Trump said from the White House on Wednesday as he opened a roundtable event on a different matter. The trip could occur on Sunday, Trump said, adding that “negotiations are going along very well.”

Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, arrived Wednesday at Sharm el-Sheikh for the discussions, as did Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top adviser, Ron Dermer.

Also read: Day 1 of Israel-Hamas peace talks in Egypt ends on ‘positive’ note

High-profile Hamas prisoners

As the talks gather pace, Hamas is expected to seek the release of some of the highest-profile prisoners held by Israel, including the most popular and potentially unifying Palestinian political figure: Marwan Barghouti.

Israel views Barghouti and the others as terrorist masterminds who murdered Israeli civilians and has refused to release them in past exchanges. But it faces mounting pressure to end the war and bring back the surviving hostages and the remains of those dead.

Many Palestinians view the thousands of prisoners held by Israel as political prisoners or freedom fighters resisting decades of military occupation.

Israel fears history will repeat itself after it released senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a 2011 exchange. The long-serving prisoner was one of the main architects of the October 7 attack and went on to lead the militant group before he was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year.

Hamas’s likely list

Here’s a look at some of the prisoners believed to be at the top of a list Hamas says it submitted to mediators this week.

Marwan Barghouti: For several years, polls have shown that the 66-year-old Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian political figure and suggest he would handily win presidential elections, which haven’t been held since 2005. Some have even compared him to Nelson Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years before becoming South Africa’s first Black president.

Abdullah Barghouti: The Kuwait-born Barghouti, with no direct relation to Marwan, was a senior Hamas bombmaker and commander during the 2000 intifada who was implicated in several notorious attacks on Israeli civilians, mainly in Jerusalem. An Israeli court handed him 67 life sentences in 2004 — the longest sentence handed down in the country’s history — after he was convicted of attacks that killed 66 people, including five Americans, and wounded more than 500.

Also read: 'Trump's Gaza plan is welcome as it signals end to Israeli assault'

Ahmed Saadat: The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small leftist faction with an armed wing, was accused of organizing the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, an ultranationalist who called for the mass expulsion of Palestinians.

Hassan Salama: This senior Hamas militant was given 46 life sentences in 1997 stemming from the bombing of two commuter buses in Jerusalem and another attack that together killed and wounded dozens of people. He led a series of revenge attacks after the assassination of Hamas’ chief bombmaker, Yahya Ayyash, in 1996. Salama, now in his early 50s, was arrested later that year.

Abbas al-Sayyed: Now in his late 50s, Sayyed was a senior Hamas commander in the West Bank during the 2000 intifada and was implicated in the deadliest attack of the uprising. He was given 35 life sentences and another 100 years over his role in multiple attacks, including a suicide bombing at the Park Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya in March 2002 that killed 30 people and wounded 140 others as they celebrated the Jewish Passover.

Isolated Israel, question mark on Palestinian state

While many questions remain, the sides appear to be closer than they have been in several months to ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed most of Gaza and triggered other armed conflicts across the Middle East.

The war has sparked worldwide protests and brought widespread allegations of genocide that Israel denies. Israel is more isolated than it has been in decades and bitterly divided over the failure to return the hostages. The Palestinians’ dream of an independent state appears more remote than ever despite recent moves by major Western countries to recognise one.

The deal was solidified in Egypt after days of negotiations centred 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.

Also read: Trump warns Israel, Hamas to ‘move fast’ or face 'massive bloodshed'

Gaza genocide

A growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body, have said that Israel's offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide — an accusation Israel denies. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

According to a new study by a United Nations agency, more than 54,600 children younger than five in Gaza may be acutely malnourished, with more than 12,800 severely affected, after two years of war and dire food shortages.

By early August, roughly 16 per cent of children ages six months to just under five years in Gaza were suffering from a life-threatening type of malnutrition known as acute wasting, including nearly 4 per cent with severe wasting, according to the analysis by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the primary health care provider to Palestinian refugees in the region.

Wasting requires treatment with therapeutic food over several weeks and, sometimes, hospitalization.

The study, published in The Lancet medical journal on Wednesday (October 8), relied on screenings of nearly 220,000 children from dozens of health centres and medical sites in Gaza between January 2024 and mid-August.

(With agency inputs)