ISRAEL AWAITS THE HOSTAGES RETURN WHILE PALESTENIANS RETURN AS GAZA CEASE FIRE AGREEMENT TAKES EFFECT
An Israel-Hamas ceasefire went into effect at noon local time (5 a.m. Eastern) Friday as part of the first phase of President Trump’s peace plan to end the war in Gaza, the Israeli military said.
The 72-hour period for Hamas to release all remaining hostages has begun. Israeli officials say 48 hostages are still in Gaza, including 20 who are believed to be alive.
As part of the deal outlined by Mr. Trump, Israel will release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli hostages, and allow the immediate provision of “full aid” to Gaza, which has faced severe food shortages and has fallen into famine in some regions, according to the world’s leading authority on food crises.
Palestinians who left northern Gaza during the fighting began trekking back to the area and searching the ruins for bodies.
President Trump expressed confidence that a ceasefire will hold. He will visit Israel on Monday to mark the ceasefire and hostage deal, delivering an address to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. He is also expected to chair a summit in Egypt later in the day.
Former U.S. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice praised the Trump administration’s success in reaching a Middle East peace deal in a conversation with CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell on Friday.
Hamas official says hostages to be released Monday prior to Trump’s Egypt summit
Hamas will begin releasing Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Monday morning, one of its top officials said, before President Trump chairs an international summit in Egypt on his peace plan for the region.
As part of the deal’s first phase, Hamas will free the captives, 20 of whom Israel believes are still alive, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
“According to the signed agreement, the prisoner exchange is set to begin on Monday morning as agreed,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the AFP news agency in an interview Saturday.
Mr. Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will then chair a summit of more than 20 countries in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday afternoon, the Egyptian presidency announced.
The meeting will aim “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability,” it said.
Several other world leaders have said they will also attend, including the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his counterparts from Italy and Spain, Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sanchez, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
There was no immediate word on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be there. Hamas would not take part as it had “acted principally through…Qatari and Egyptian mediators” during talks, Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said.
Netanyahu says Hamas will disarm, Gaza will be demilitarized as military says ceasefire in effect
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel is “tightening the noose around Hamas from all sides,” and vowed that Gaza would be demilitarized following the Israeli government’s approval of a peace plan to end the war.
“Hamas will disarm and Gaza will be demilitarized. If this can be achieved the easy way, all the better; if not, it will be achieved the hard way,” Netanyahu said, addressing reporters.
The Israeli leader defended his record in prosecuting the war in Gaza, which has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities.
“Anyone who claims that this hostage deal was always on the table is simply not telling the truth. Hamas never agreed to release all the hostages while we remained deep inside the Strip. It agreed only when the sword was on its neck, and that sword is still there,” Netanyahu said.
SHUF to the world-Be careful who you marry
Be Careful Who You Marry as a Wife or Husband
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