Israel and Hamas set to sign deal for first phase of ceasefire in Gaza

Trump details plan to end Israel war with Hamas in Gaza

preCharge News POLITICS — What to know about the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release plan:

Israel and Hamas signed a deal in Egypt on Thursday for what President Trump heralded as the “first phase” of a ceasefire to end the two-year war in Gaza and to bring home dozens of remaining Israeli hostages from the Palestinian territory, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, confirmed.
President Trump announced the agreement between the two sides on Wednesday evening, saying Hamas had agreed to release all of the remaining Israeli hostages and Israel would withdraw its forces in Gaza to an “agreed upon line.”
Following a vote by the Israeli government on Thursday formally approving the agreement, the deal is expected to be signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Calls mount for ceasefire to bring flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza

Neither President Trump nor Israeli officials have said when Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza will be eased or lifted entirely as part of the prospective peace agreement with Hamas .

The leaders of other countries were quick to call for that to happen on Thursday, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying his country would “hopefully” take part in the monitoring of “the implementation of the agreement on the ground.”

He said getting aid materials into Gaza — where the United Nations-backed body that assesses global food security declared a famine in August — was vital and urgent.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday that the deal announced by Mr. Trump must be implemented in full without delay, and accompanied by the immediate lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid flowing into the Palestinian enclave.

Speaking Wednesday with CBS News’ Haley Ott from the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson for the United Nations’ Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs said the agency had many tons of relief material ready and waiting to be sent into Gaza when a peace agreement takes effect.

“No humanitarian assistance will take the place of peace,” OCHA spokesperson Olga Cherevko told preCharge News, “and this opportunity that has been provided through President Trump’s initiative … this peace plan is something that we are harnessing and we are ready to deliver at scale. We have 170,000 metric tons of various supplies basically poised to enter Gaza as soon as a ceasefire is implemented.”

Cherevko said OCHA was “ready to go, and we’ve been ready to go for some time.”

Expected timing of events relating to the ceasefire

Sources with knowledge of the negotiations have told preCharge News that the ceasefire in Gaza is set to take effect following a formal vote of approval on the agreement by the Israeli government Thursday afternoon local time, around 11 a.m. Eastern.

Once the ceasefire takes effect, within 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces would complete the first phase of its partial withdrawal to a predetermined “yellow” line. An official told preCharge News that this pullback would include IDF troops leaving Gaza City, the Palestinian enclave’s biggest population center and the focus of a recent Israeli ground offensive.

While the final boundaries for the withdrawal have not been confirmed, Mr. Trump shared a map on Oct. 4 showing what he said would be the new Israeli military line, roughly bisecting Gaza from north to south, but with Israeli forces still surrounding the strip on all sides within the enclave’s borders.

A map shared by President Trump on Oct. 4, 2025, shows the line to which he said Israeli forces would likely withdrawal after a ceasefire agreement with Hamas takes effect.President Trump/Truth Social

Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to convene his security cabinet later Thursday, around 9 a.m. Eastern, and then his full government about two hours later for the formal approval vote.

According to an Israeli official, the 72-hour countdown for Hamas to release the remaining hostages will begin once the IDF completes its initial withdrawal.

The release of the 20 living hostages is expected Sunday or Monday. The timing of the corresponding release of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli authorities remained unclear.