Live updates: Trump thanks Qatar, Egypt for helping seal 'momentous' Israel-Hamas peace deal

ruff says hostages held by islamic resistance movement to be released betimes next hebdomad

'The hostages are coming back': Trump reacts after Israel-Hamas initial deal

'This war aged us 10 years': Hear reaction to peace plan from inside Gaza

Relief and a 'complex' set of feelings for son of Hamas hostages as 1st phase of peace plan reached

‘It is a day for optimism,’ says Carney on first phase of U.S.-proposed Israel-Hamas deal

Trump says Israel, Hamas agree to first phase of peace plan

Trump says Israel, Hamas agree to 1st phase of plan to end war in Gaza

The moment: Trump handed note about ceasefire deal being ‘close’

Politics prof on Israel-Hamas deal: 'The hard work begins now'

Why this Gaza ceasefire deal could be different from previous ones

Netanyahu agrees to Trump's 20-point plan to end Israel-Hamas war

Paramedics in Gaza weary after years of death and destruction

Nova festival site sobering reminder of Oct. 7 attacks and remaining hostages

How Israel tries to control the narrative around Gaza

Celebrations were still going strong in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square around 8 p.m. Local time.

“I’m a skeptic. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. I’ve been through a lot here,” Egoz said. He pointed to previous ceasefire agreements that fell through, and the fact that “people kept dying.”

“I wasn’t sure. But when I saw the happiness of people here, there was some kind of release.”

'The hostages are coming back': Trump reacts after Israel-Hamas initial deal

U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking Friday during a cabinet meeting after Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a peace plan, said the hostages held by Hamas will be returned early next week. Trump, who spoke about the 'terrible' losses of Oct. 7, said Hamas also saw 'big retribution' over the course of the deadly war.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the achievement of the deal will go down as a historic moment.

“Remember a month ago, no one thought this was possible,” Rubio told Trump at the cabinet meeting.

Trump made the deal happen with “some extraordinary phone calls and meetings that required a high degree of intensity and commitment,” Rubio said

“Not only is there no other leader in the world that could have put this together, Mr. President, but frankly, I don't know of any American president in the modern era that could have made this possible,” he said.

Israelis chanted, cheered, sang and banged drums in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square after the sun set Thursday evening.

“They’re hugging, they’re handing out stickers, they have really spent the entire day here,” she said amid a pulsing crowd.

Earlier in the day, the Times of Israel described a “mix of cautious optimism and euphoria” as relatives of hostages and supporters filled the square.

“There have been so many moments of longing and suffering here,” said Misha Nataf, who told the Times he has come to the square every week since Oct. 7. “We came here as a corrective in order to really celebrate with everyone, and it’s really exciting,” he said.

Avi Duek, a teacher in the nearby city of Ramat Gan who came to Hostages Square with his 14-month-old son, told The Associated Press he’s cautiously excited.

“Of course, it’s not over until it’s over, but today is a day we can have a little bit more hope,” he said.

“God willing, this will be completed. First and foremost to serve the interests of the people of Gaza and the Palestinian people,” said Wael Abdullah, a resident in Ramallah, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “Enough killing, enough destruction, enough displacement.

“But based on what we’ve seen throughout history, we know that Israelis neither keep promises nor commitments, and we fear that they might break the agreement after they retrieve their prisoners,” he told The Associated Press Thursday.

Sharon Canot, who lives in Jerusalem, said Israelis have been anxiously waiting for the hostage release.

“I really wish for it to be over, and we cannot wait for the hostages to come here,” Canot said. “We cried all morning … It's been two years that we are in horror.”

Opening up the aid corridor to address malnutrition and other humanitarian needs is a crucial part of the ceasefire deal. The United Nations aid chief said Thursday that 170,000 tonnes of aid was ready to go into Gaza.

More than 54,600 children under the age of five in Gaza are severely malnourished, according to a new study published in The Lancet and funded by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The study was conducted across 16 UNRWA health centres and 78 medical sites at school shelters and tent encampments. It analyzed upper-arm measurements of children age six months to five years. Those with arm measurements of less than 125 millimetres suffer from what doctors call 'acute wasting' — the most severe and life-threatening stage of malnutrition that requires treatment.

Close to 16 per cent of children screened fit that category as of August, the study found.

The study noted that research was complicated by having to operate in an active war zone. Data collection in Rafah was temporarily halted because of military operations, for example. Researchers were also only able to take a single upper-arm measurement, which could impact the findings.

After focusing on the Gaza deal for seven minutes of the cabinet meeting, Trump did a sharp pivot to domestic political topics.

“We're here this morning for a cabinet meeting as my administration continues to deliver for the American people despite the radical left lunatics that shut down our government,” Trump said.

He continued on in this vein for 20 minutes — touching on tariffs, crime, the price of gas under Joe Biden and how Democrats “still want that transgender for everybody” — without mentioning the peace deal once, before turning the floor over to his cabinet members.

"On the one hand, it's a great sense of relief that genocide is over, that no massacres will take place anymore, that no bombing will take place, and that people will be reunited," he said Thursday morning from Ottawa.

"On the other hand, people are cautious."

Palestinians, a UN commission of inquiry and some international humanitarian organizations have argued that Israel's military operation in Gaza constitutes genocide as defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, although Israel has vehemently denied such allegations.

Nijim pointed to the ceasefire deal earlier this year signed by Hamas and Israel, which crumbled in March after the first phase of the ceasefire expired without agreement on the second phase. By March 18, Israel had resumed airstrikes on Gaza.

People are scared that Israel will resume the bombing of Gaza once Hamas is disarmed, as spelled out in U.S. President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan, Nijim said.

Still, he said, his family in Gaza is celebrating.

"They’re breathing now."

David Michael Lamb

In claiming that all countries support the deal, Trump said that includes Iran. “Iran wants to work on peace now, they’ve informed us. And they’ve acknowledged that they are totally in favour of this deal, they think it’s a great thing.”

But that’s not exactly what Iran said.

The foreign ministry in Tehran says it supports any effort that ends the “genocide” and the war in Gaza.

But it also expressed at least some skepticism about the durability of the agreement. The foreign ministry said it was calling on the international community to prevent Israel from violating its obligations.

Trump is so pleased with how the peace deal is being received that he’s being magnanimous toward one his favourite targets for scorn: the media.

“I won't call it fake news for this purpose, because they really were very fair today, I must say,” Trump told his cabinet, adding that the media have covered the deal very fairly.

“Everybody loves it, everybody,” he said. “People that were never giving us a fair shake, frankly. They can't even believe this. They're amazed by it.”

Trump says his team is still working on the timing, but he will travel to Egypt for an official signing of the deal.

“The amazing thing is, all of the countries over there, from Qatar to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, all of them, the rich ones, the less-than-rich ones, they've all come together,” he said.

Trump offered his “tremendous gratitude to the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkey for helping us reach this incredible day.”

---

---