PinnedUpdated Oct. 8, 2025, 7:29 p.m. ETThe New York TimesAfter months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas reached an agreement for the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a long-awaited breakthrough that could point toward an end to the two-year war in Gaza.President Trump, who helped broker the deal, announced on social media that both sides had agreed to the first phase of his plan, including that Israel would pull back their troops to an agreed upon line. Qatar, one of the countries helping negotiate, and Hamas also indicated in statements that the deal would allow for the entry of aid into Gaza.The details of the deal were unclear, including the timing and specifics of the exchange, as well as the line of withdrawal.“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement, saying, he would convene his government on Thursday to sign off on the agreement, calling it a “great day for Israel.” He thanked President Trump but did not provide details.Hamas in its statement called on Mr. Trump, guarantors to the agreement and others to compel Israel “to fully implement the agreement’s requirements and not allow it to evade or delay.”Dr. Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said on Wednesday evening that “an agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza cease-fire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid.” The details will be announced later, he added.Earlier this month, Mr. Trump had unveiled a sweeping 20-point plan to end the war and free the remaining hostages. Israel believes that about 20 hostages are still alive in Gaza, and has been seeking the remains of about 25 others.Under that proposal, the hostages would be exchanged for 250 Palestinians prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans jailed by Israel during the war. For every hostage whose remains are released, Israel would also release the remains of 15 Gazans.The talks in Egypt have been taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh and on Wednesday, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff joined them, along with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser on the region. Ron Dermer, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and Qatar’s prime minister, were also present at the talks.Here’s what else to know:Trump’s Deadline: On Friday, Mr. Trump warned Hamas that many more of its fighters would be killed if the group did not agree to a deal by Sunday evening. Hamas on Friday said that it would agree to release all of the hostages held in Gaza, living and dead, but wanted to negotiate other elements of the plan. That evening, Mr. Trump said that he believed Hamas was “ready for a lasting peace” and called on Israel to stop bombing Gaza. In the early hours of Saturday, the office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that the country was ready for the “immediate release of all hostages” and would cooperate with the White House “to end the war.”Pressure on Israel: Israel’s Sept. 9 strike targeting Hamas representatives in Qatar rankled government officials both in the region and in Washington. But it also motivated an angry Mr. Trump and his advisers to pressure Mr. Netanyahu of Israel into supporting a framework for ending the war in Gaza. Friday’s offer by Hamas may apply more pressure on the Israeli leader to accept terms he has long dismissed. Read more ›Two-year war: The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, in which roughly 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. Since then, the Israeli military response has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, including both civilians and combatants, according to the Gaza health ministry, and destroyed the territory’s infrastructure.Oct. 8, 2025, 7:29 p.m. ETWhile Israel and Hamas have agreed to an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, it was still not clear whether the two-year-old war in Gaza would end. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not agree to end the war unless Hamas disarms, a demand that the militant group has publicly rejected. Statements from Hamas, Israel, President Trump and Qatar made no mention of Hamas’s arms.Oct. 8, 2025, 7:24 p.m. ETBenjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, just said he would convene his government on Thursday to sign off on the agreement with Hamas. He thanked President Trump and his team for helping to clinch the deal. “This is a great day for Israel,” he said in a statement. He vowed to continue to pursue “all of our goals and expand peace with our neighbours.” Netanyahu didn’t provide any more details about the arrangement, which Hamas said would lead to the end of the war.Oct. 8, 2025, 7:23 p.m. ETIn its statement on the deal, Hamas said the agreement would lead to the end of the war in Gaza and Israel’s withdrawal from the territory. President Trump said both sides had agreed to the first phase of the deal which involves a hostage and prisoner exchange and an initial Israeli military pullback.Oct. 8, 2025, 7:10 p.m. ETIsrael’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a terse statement, saying only, “With God’s help, we will bring them all home,” an apparent reference to the hostages being held in Gaza. The statement did not provide additional insight, nor did it explicitly state that Israel had signed on to the plan, though it suggested as much and followed shortly after Trump’s post.Oct. 8, 2025, 7:10 p.m. ETDr. Majed Al Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, one of the countries mediating between Hamas and Israel in the indirect negotiations, said on Wednesday evening that “an agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid.” He noted that “details will be announced later.”Credit...Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOct. 8, 2025, 7:08 p.m. ETPresident Trump announced on Truth Social on Wednesday night that Israel and Hamas “have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” declaring that all remaining hostages “will be released very soon.” He said that Israeli troops will be withdrawn from an “agreed-upon line” but his statement left open the question of what comes next and whether Hamas would agree to fully disarm and surrender any claim of control over Gaza.Oct. 8, 2025, 5:48 p.m. ETDavid E. SangerDavid E. Sanger has covered five American presidents and frequently writes about superpower conflict, the subject of his latest book.President Trump at a meeting at the White House on Wednesday.Credit...Anna Rose Layden for The New York TimesPresident Trump said Wednesday that negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas were “going very well,” and raised the possibility he may head to the Mideast over the weekend, presumably to mark a cease-fire and release of hostages.His enthusiasm was bolstered late in the afternoon, during a public event in the East Room, when he was handed a note by Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggesting that negotiators in Egypt were “very close” — the words were underlined — and asked Mr. Trump to “approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”The president’s comments, combined with Mr. Rubio’s note, caught by the long lens of an Associated Press photographer, were the most definitive suggestion yet that the two-year-long conflict may be about to pause, if not end. It began with the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, killing roughly 1,100 Israelis, and Israel has since claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives in Gaza. But the president did not provide specifics about the negotiations, where he is represented by his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.“I may go there,” he said, first suggesting he could leave on Sunday, and immediately correcting himself to suggest his departure could be Saturday evening.“I’ll be going to Egypt,” he said, referring to the country where the negotiations between Israel and Hamas are underway, coaxed along by Arab states and the United States, which is represented by Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.But he added he would be “making the rounds,’’ which seemed to suggest he might visit Israel, to celebrate the release of the remaining living hostages, and the bodies of the dead; their freedom is supposed to be the first step in the president’s 20-point plan. Asked if he would go into ruins of Gaza — a place where it would be hard to secure his safety — he said “I may do that.”Mr. Trump has made no secret of the fact that he is lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was won by three sitting American presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama. (Jimmy Carter won one in 2002, decades after he left the White House.)While he has cited more than a half-dozen conflicts in which he claims to have been the driving force for peace agreements, or cessations of conflict, he would be able to make a good case that he was the driving force of a Gaza agreement.His 20-point plan was both more comprehensive and better considered than many of his early foreign policy initiatives. “This cease-fire and hostage release — if it happens — only came to fruition because of Trump’s willingness to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu,’’ said Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has often been critical of Mr. Trump’s starts and stops in the Mideast. “No president — Republican or Democrat — has ever come down harder on an Israeli prime minister on issues so critically important to his politics or his country’s security interests.”Last week Mr. Trump essentially forced Mr. Netanyahu to accept the 20-point plan, including the pullback of Israeli troops in Gaza and the creation of a technocratic, Palestinian-led governing group for the region. He told the Israeli prime minister he could not annex the West Bank or drive all Palestinians out of Gaza.