Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed “a critical turning point” in the Gaza war after Israel and Hamas signed off the first phase of Donald Trump’s peace plan.

The Israeli prime minister said Wednesday night’s breakthrough meant all remaining 48 hostages held by the militant group, 20 of whom are thought to still be alive, would be returned.

Gaza war latest: Celebrations as Trump announces peace deal

“Through steadfast resolve, powerful military action, and the great efforts of our great friend and ally President Trump, we’ve reached this critical turning point,” he added.

The White House said it was down to the Israeli security cabinet to sign off the deal today, which will bring a ceasefire into force and allow for an exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas urged Mr Trump not to let Israel “evade or delay” the deal, as it said it hoped it would lead to the “complete withdrawal” of the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Defence Forces said it was “ready for any scenario” and any movement “will be carried out in accordance with the directives” of its government. In a statement, it added it is prepared to “lead the operation” for the hostages’ return.

It comes after the US president announced the two sides had agreed to the first phase of his plan.

‘A great day for the world’

In a Truth Social post just before midnight UK time, he said: “I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan.”

It means all the hostages will be released, he said, and Israel will withdraw its troops “to an agreed upon line”.

He thanked mediators for their part in negotiations in Egypt this week, including those from Qatar and Turkey. The delegates were pictured hugging and celebrating as the deal was announced.

He later told Reuters it was a “great day for the world”, and told Fox News the hostages could be released on Monday.

Mr Trump had teased an imminent announcement earlier on Wednesday evening – and revealed he may travel to the Middle East, and perhaps even Gaza, as soon as this weekend.

During an event at the White House, the US secretary of state Marco Rubio handed Mr Trump a note, which the US president read and then said: “I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they’re going to need me pretty quickly.”

The note had the two words “very close” underlined and asked the US president to approve a post on his Truth Social website “soon so you can announce deal first”.

Analysis: For the moment, at least, a beacon of optimism

Adam Parsons

Middle East correspondent

@adamparsons

Rumours had been spreading over the course of the day, anticipation grew.

A source told me that a deal would be done by Friday, another said perhaps by Thursday evening.

They were both wrong. Instead, it came much sooner, announced by Donald Trump on his own social media channel.

Without being anywhere near the talks in Egypt, the president was the dominant figure.

Few will argue that he deserves the credit for driving this agreement. We can probably see the origins of all this in Israel’s decision to try to kill the Hamas leadership in Doha.

The attack failed, and the White House was annoyed.

Arab states started to express themselves to Trump more successfully, arguing that it was time for him to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu and bring an end to the war.

Read more from Adam here

Sources familiar with the talks had told Sky News lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim a deal could be signed within 24 to 36 hours.

Mr Trump’s plan called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the 48 hostages still held in Gaza from the 7 October 2023 attack that sparked the beginning of the war.

Hamas was seeking guarantees from mediators Israel will not resume its military campaign in Gaza after the militant group releases all the remaining Israeli hostages.

Other elements of the deal include a requirement that Hamas disarm, and the creation of an international body to run the enclave once Hamas steps down – led by Mr Trump, with a role for Sir Tony Blair.

Ahead of Mr Trump’s announcement, Israel had reduced its military campaign in Gaza at his request, but had not stopped conducting strikes altogether.

Medical authorities in Gaza reported eight people had been killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours – the lowest number for weeks.

Over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says around half were women and children.

When the peace deal came, it came quickly.

Rumours had been spreading over the course of the day, anticipation grew. A source told me that a deal would be done by Friday, another said perhaps by Thursday evening.

Israel and Hamas agree to peace deal – live updates

They were both wrong. Instead, it came much sooner, announced by Donald Trump on his own social media channel. Without being anywhere near the talks in Egypt, the president was the dominant figure.

Few will argue that he deserves the credit for driving this agreement. We can probably see the origins of all this in Israel’s decision to try to kill the Hamas leadership in Doha.

The attack failed, and the White House was annoyed.

Arab states started to express themselves to Trump more successfully, arguing that it was time for him to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu and bring an end to the war.

They repeated the call at a meeting during the UN General Assembly, which seems to have landed. When the president later met Netanyahu, the 20-point plan was born, which led to this fresh peace agreement.

Does it cover everything? Absolutely not. We don’t know who will run Gaza in the future, for a start, which is a pretty yawning hole when you consider that Gaza’s fresh start is imminent.

We don’t know what will happen to Hamas, or to its weapons, or really how Israel will withdraw from the Strip.

But these talks have always been fuelled by optimism, and by the sense that if you could stop the fighting and get the hostages home, then everything else might just fall into place.

In order to agree to this, Hamas must surely have been given strong assurances that, even at some level, its demands for Palestinian self-determination would bear fruit. Otherwise, why would the group have given up their one trump card – the 48 hostages?

Once they have gone, Hamas has no leverage at all. It has precious few friends among the countries sitting around the negotiating table, and it is a massively depleted fighting force.

So to give up that power, I can only assume that Khalil al-Hayya, the de facto Hamas leader, got a cast-iron guarantee of… something.

Arab states will greet this agreement with joy. Some of that is to do with empathy for the Palestinians in Gaza, where 67,000 people have been killed and more than 10% of the population has become a casualty of war.

But they will also welcome a path to stability, where there is less fear of spillover from the Gaza conflict and more confidence about the region’s economic and political unity.

Trump’s worldview – that everything comes down to business and deal-making – is welcomed by some of these leaders as a smart way of seeing diplomacy.

Jared Kushner has plenty of friends among these nations, and his input was important.

Read more about 7 October:
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For many Israelis, this comes down to a few crucial things. Firstly, the hostages are coming home. It is hard to overstate just how embedded that cause is to Israeli society.

The return of all 48, living and dead, will be a truly profound moment for this nation.

Secondly, their soldiers will no longer be fighting a war that, even within the higher echelons of the military, is believed to be drifting and purposeless.

Thirdly, there is growing empathy for the plight of the Gazans, which is tied to a fourth point – a realisation that Israel’s reputation on the world stage has been desperately tarnished.

Some will object to this deal and say that it is too weak; that it lets Hamas off the hook and fails to punish them for the atrocities of October 7.

It is an accusation that will be levelled by far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition government. It could even collapse the administration.

But for most people, in Israel, Gaza, across the Middle East and around the world, it is a moment of relief. Last week, I was in Gaza, and the destruction was absolutely devastating to witness.

Whatever the compromises, the idea that the war has stopped is, for the moment at least, a beacon of optimism.

Timing is everything.

This couldn’t be truer for the current ceasefire deal on the table to end the devastating war in Gaza.

More than 67,000 Palestinians are dead, virtually all of Gaza has been flattened by Israel’s bombing campaign, and disease and famine stalk the Strip.

Gaza latest – Gaza ceasefire deal ‘could be signed tomorrow’

Yet Hamas – the group still holding the 20 or so living hostages in captivity – is still not entirely defeated.

Yes, they are weakened immensely, but has Benjamin Netanyahu achieved the “total victory” over the group he set out to do two years ago? No.

So why has he suddenly agreed to a partial victory?

Speaking to those in the Israeli security establishment, one could develop a somewhat cynical view about his decision.

Recent leaks in the media around talks between Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister, reports that the US president told Mr Netanyahu to “stop being so f***ing negative,” could be more coordinated than it seems at first glance, according to these conversations that I am having here in Israel.

It now suits Mr Netanyahu politically to stop the war.

For the past two years, he has needed to keep his coalition with the far-right together to prevent his government from collapsing.

That meant continuing to pound Gaza, restricting the flow of aid, and allowing the likes of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to continue, unchecked, to fan the flames of ethnonationalism and call for the ethnic cleansing of the area.

Now, next year’s elections are honing into view.

Mr Netanyahu needs a win so he can go to his country as the statesman who got the hostages back and ended the war.

He needs external pressure from the US president to get this war done.

Don’t forget that, for Mr Trump, the timing is also key; the Nobel Peace Prize is announced on Friday and there is not much more that the president wants than to put the gong on his mantelpiece.

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Some pessimists said that Mr Netanyahu’s government wouldn’t last for days after the 7 October 2023 attacks because of the massive security failings.

After all, this is a country that punishes political leaders more harshly than most.

But two years later, Mr Netanyahu is still fighting.

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Never mind that this deal looks a lot like the deal former US President Joe Biden presented more than a year ago. The timing wasn’t right then, but it might be now.

The Palestinians living through sheer hell in Gaza desperately need this deal to be finalised.

As do those Israelis with family still held captive by Hamas.

A dual hell for both sides, separated by mere miles, and depending on a man who may have finally decided that the time for peace has come because it suits him.