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Israel says 'all parties' signed phase one of Gaza deal / Photo: Jim WATSON - AFP
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Israel says 'all parties' signed phase one of Gaza deal
Israel said Thursday that all parties have signed the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, in a major step to end a war that has killed tens of thousands of people.
The agreement in Egypt follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, after more than two years of war sparked by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.
Trump was expected to be in Jerusalem on Sunday, the office of his Israeli counterpart said, after the US leader said he might also go to Egypt and consider going to Gaza.
With Israel's security cabinet due to meet from 1400 GMT, a ceasefire was to take hold in devastated Gaza "within 24 hours", government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said.
"The final draft of phase one was signed this morning in Egypt by all parties to release all the hostages," she told journalists.
"Now phase one stands very clear: all of our hostages, the living and the deceased, will be released 72 hours later, which will bring us to Monday," she said.
At 1500 GMT, Israel's full cabinet will meet to approve the deal, under which the military should withdraw from Gaza and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
The deal also envisions a surge of aid into Gaza, where the UN has declared famine.
The Israeli army said it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza, in line with the agreement.
Trump's plan also calls for the disarmament of Hamas and for Gaza to be ruled by a transitional authority headed by the US president himself, though these points have yet to be addressed in discussions.
A source within Hamas told AFP the group will exchange 20 living hostages all at the same time for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal's first phase.
- 'Tears of joy' -
The announcement sparked joy in Gaza, much of which has been flattened by bombardment and most of whose residents have been displaced at least once over the past two years.
"Honestly, when I heard the news, I couldn't hold back. Tears of joy flowed. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the constant feeling that we could die at any moment," displaced Palestinian Samer Joudeh told AFP.
In Israel, thousands of people gathered in a Tel Aviv square to celebrate, some holding photos of hostages still in Gaza and waving Israeli and US flags.
Many wore stickers reading: "They're coming back."
"We have been waiting for this day for 734 days. We cannot imagine being anywhere else this morning," said Laurence Ytzhak, 54.
The deal was thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Red Sea.
While Arab leaders including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said they hoped the ceasefire would lead to a permanent solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, there was no indication the talks were addressing any of the deeper issues at stake.
- 'With God's help' -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would bring the hostages home "with God's help", while Hamas has submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released from Israeli jails in the first phase.
The list names 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began, according to the Hamas source.
High-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti -- from Hamas's rival, the Fatah movement -- is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media.
However, when asked by a journalist at a briefing whether Israel had agreed to release Barghouti, government spokeswoman Bedrosian said: "I can tell you at this point in time that he will not be part of this release."
The talks were taking place under the shadow of the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,183 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas's authority, reported several strikes on the territory after the announcement of the deal.
- 'The fighting must stop' -
Hamas has also been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Countries around the world welcomed the deal, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying: "The fighting must stop once and for all."
burs/ser/jhb
A.Riccobono--INP
