Hamas chief negotiator says group received guarantees from mediators and US that Gaza war has ended
Exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said on Thursday that Hamas has received guarantees from the United States, Arab mediators and Turkey that the war on Gaza “has ended permanently”, Reuters reports.
In a televised speech to the Palestinian public, al-Hayya said:
Today we announce that the agreement has been reached to end the war and aggression against our people and begin implementing a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of the occupation forces.
The deal between Israel and Hamas would lead to a a sustained ceasefire, the entry of aid and the opening of Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt, he said.
Al-Hayya said the agreement provides for the release of 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, as well 1,700 Gazans who have been imprisoned by Israel since the war began.
Mediators and the United States had provided guarantees that the agreement means “the war is completely over”, he added.
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Updated at 20.46 CEST
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Israel security minister Ben-Gvir threatens Israeli government collapse if ultimately Hamas remains intact
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned on Thursday that his Jewish Power party would push to topple prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government unless Hamas is ultimately dismantled.
“If the Hamas government is not dismantled, or if they only tell us that it is dismantled while in reality it continues to exist under a different guise – Jewish Power will dismantle the government,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement ahead of the Israeli cabinet meeting to approve the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release plan.
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Israeli’s government will begin its meeting at 10pm local time (3pm ET) to vote on a resolution laying out the terms of a ceasefire and hostage release plan (see my earlier posts on what’s to be discussed and the meeting and the next steps that will follow once it’s approved).
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Hamas chief negotiator says group received guarantees from mediators and US that Gaza war has ended
Exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said on Thursday that Hamas has received guarantees from the United States, Arab mediators and Turkey that the war on Gaza “has ended permanently”, Reuters reports.
In a televised speech to the Palestinian public, al-Hayya said:
Today we announce that the agreement has been reached to end the war and aggression against our people and begin implementing a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of the occupation forces.
The deal between Israel and Hamas would lead to a a sustained ceasefire, the entry of aid and the opening of Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt, he said.
Al-Hayya said the agreement provides for the release of 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons, as well 1,700 Gazans who have been imprisoned by Israel since the war began.
Mediators and the United States had provided guarantees that the agreement means “the war is completely over”, he added.
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Updated at 20.46 CEST
What happens after Israel’s cabinet signs off on the plan?
Once the Israeli cabinet approves and signs off on that plan, its bombing of Gaza will cease – in other words, a full ceasefire – 24 hours later.
Hamas will then have three days to return the hostages (Donald Trump said earlier that he expects the hostages to be released on Monday or Tuesday), and Israeli troops will partially withdraw inside Gaza to an agreed-upon line.
The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, reaffirmed that this is the plan in an interview with Fox News earlier today. “We are committed to Trump’s plan,” he said.
Asked whether the deal meant the end of the war, Sa’ar said, “it’s the implementation of the first phase,” referring to Trump’s 20-point plan. “We don’t have any intention to renew the war.”
A flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza via the reopening of the Rafah crossing from Egypt and prisoner releases by Israel are also then expected to follow (that list is still being finalised).
Hamas has asked the US to make sure that Israel sticks to its commitments and doesn’t delay.
Israeli attacks on Gaza, meanwhile, have continued on Thursday.
A man observes rising smoke after an explosion in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel on Thursday. Photograph: Ariel Schalit/APShare
Updated at 20.52 CEST
Israeli ministers meet to finalise Gaza ceasefire with Hamas
Israel’s security cabinet meeting has concluded and government ministers are due to convene in the next few hours to vote on a government resolution that would see the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
CNN obtained a copy of the document officials are voting on. It lays out the following:
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Within 24 hours of the government approving the plan, Israeli military forces would deploy along the yellow line, the proposed initial Israeli withdrawal line in Gaza.
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Within 72 hours after the redeployment, 20 living Israeli hostages and 28 deceased hostages – including four deceased non-Israeli hostages – will be released from captivity in Gaza.
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The resolution outlines that the release schedule of the hostages will be “determined with careful consideration to avoid endangering their lives or delaying their release, given the unique circumstances and condition of the hostages”.
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If the bodies of the deceased hostages are not all released, then a classified appendix with “additional conditions” will be invoked, the resolution stipulates.
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In turn, Israel will begin the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees who are under the custody of the Israel Prison Service or the Israel Defense Forces. This will include 250 prisoners serving life sentences, who will be released on the agreement that they be expelled to Gaza or abroad and not return to Israel.
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Israel will also release 1,700 Gaza residents and 22 minors, all of whom were not involved in the October 7 attacks but were detained after.
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The bodies of 360 people that Israel has designated as “terrorists” will also be returned.
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Updated at 20.33 CEST
Mission to evacuate north Gaza babies suspended as Israeli assault continues, UN says
Reuters reports that the UN children’s charity said it had to suspend a pre-approved mission to transfer two newborn babies from Gaza City because they did not get Israeli security clearance as military operations continue despite a new ceasefire deal.
The babies are part of a group of 18 newborns in north Gaza hospitals whom UN agencies have been trying to evacuate amid an ongoing Israeli assault on the enclave’s largest urban area.
The two newborns, both less than a month old, were left behind in incubators at Al Helo Hospital because they could not be safely transferred along with their parents who fled north Gaza alongside hundreds of thousands of others, Unicef saod.
“We put them in the back of the car and took them to our office and we were waiting for clearance to leave from there. Unfortunately we didn’t get that clearance,” Hamish Young, senior emergency coordinator for Unicef, said in a message sent to Reuters from Gaza City, speaking over machine gun fire.
Cogat, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. It has previously disputed claims it does not allow medical transfers.
Unicef shared images of the babies wrapped in heavy blankets in a UN vehicle taken during the 14-hour mission.
Young said that the babies were placed back in incubators in Gaza City’s Al Helo Hospital, which was shelled last month, and that ongoing military activity was preventing any further attempt to move them.
“There are drones and quadcopters still flying around and there’s some heavy machine gun fire. We’re still determined to get these babies back to their parents in the south,” he said.
According to an Israeli official, the ceasefire will go into force within 24 hours of a cabinet meeting late on Thursday as part of the first phase of a US plan to end the war.
The two babies are healthy and can remain with their parents once they are reunited in Deir al-Balah, Unicef said. However, at least one baby waiting for transfer has died and others are sharing oxygen masks in overcrowded hospitals in the south, UN agencies say.
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This is from CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs, regarding Donald Trump’s plans to visit the Middle East in the coming days.
Scoop: A Gaza stop was discussed but that has now officially been ruled out, sources tell me. It’s still fluid but the peace deal travel plan is for President Trump to go to Israel and Egypt on Sunday/Monday. He likely will not overnight in the Middle East. @CBSNews
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 9, 2025
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Also at the cabinet meeting earlier, when asked about Hamas’s ability to locate all bodies of the deceased hostages, Trump acknowledged that Hamas may not be able to produce all the bodies of the deceased hostages.
The US president conceded that some “are going to be a little bit hard to find”.
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The cabinet meeting is now over. Earlier on US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that Trump’s presentation to Arab and Muslim countries on the sidelines of last month’s UN general assembly was a key turning point for efforts to reach a deal for Gaza.
Rubio credited Trump’s “close relationships” with the regional leaders that were “forged” during his trip to the Middle East earlier this year, but said the UN meeting was key in turning the tide.
You convened a historic meeting, not simply of Arab countries, but of Muslim-majority countries from around the world … and created this coalition behind this plan.
Then on that following Monday, you met with the prime minister of Israel here, and that plan was presented. And then, of course, our great negotiating team followed up on it.
Rubio also teased that Trump “had some extraordinary phone calls and meetings that required a high degree of intensity and commitment, and made this happen”. He didn’t say who they were with, only that the stories might be told someday.
Marco Rubio speaks during Thursday’s cabinet meeting. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersShare
Updated at 19.43 CEST
Asked whether he thought Benjamin Netanyahu would be able to stay in power following the first phase of the peace deal between Israel and Hamas, Trump said he thought the Israeli PM was “very popular right now … he’s much more popular today than he was five days ago,” to which his cabinet breaks into laughter.
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Updated at 19.36 CEST
Trump also said he didn’t have a view on a two-state solution. “I’m going to go with whatever they agree to,” he said.
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Asked what kind of security guarantees the US will make for Gaza, Trump provided no specifics. He said only that he will work with “very wealthy countries” to be involved in making Gaza “as good as possible”.
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Asked if he could promise Palestinians that they will be able to stay in Gaza, Trump said: “We’re going to create something where people can live.”
“We’re going to create better conditions for people,” he added.
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Asked what assurances he has that Hamas will disarm and that Israel will stop its bombing after the release of hostages, Donald Trump said, “we’ll see,” adding that his team was focusing first on the release of hostages.
After the release of the hostages, “there will be disarming, there will be pullbacks, there will be a lot of things happening,” he said, referring to arrangements that would require Hamas to disarm and Israel’s military to pull back further inside Gaza.
“I think it will take place, and I think you can end up with peace in the Middle East, but we have to get our hostages back. And we weren’t going to do it at the end. We’re going to do it at the beginning,” he went on.
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Updated at 19.26 CEST
Trump says he has agreed to address Israel’s Knesset
Trump added that he had agreed to speak at the Knesset on his upcoming trip to the Middle East.
“They asked me to speak at the Knesset and I’ve agreed to … If they’d like me to I will do it,” he told his cabinet meeting. “If they want me to I’ll do it.”
Donald Trump speaks to his cabinet on Thursday. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 19.45 CEST
Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration would work with Iran and would like to see them be able to rebuild their country.
He added that Tehran acknowledged that they are in favor of the Israel, Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal.
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Updated at 19.05 CEST
Trump says Gaza hostages should be released on Monday or Tuesday
US president Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Gaza hostages should be released on Monday or Tuesday and that he hopes to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt.
Trump opened a a White House Cabinet meeting to discuss the deal reached on Wednesday under which the hostages held by Hamas militants are to be released as part of a first phase of a broader Gaza plan.
He said he believed it will lead to “lasting peace”.
Trump heralded what he called the “end of the war in Gaza” and claimed that Gaza will be “redone”, adding that the attack on Iran played an “important” role in bringing the conflict to an end.
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Updated at 18.26 CEST
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke by phone with US president Donald Trump on Thursday and invited him to attend a ceremony in Egypt marking the Gaza ceasefire deal, a statement from the Egyptian presidency said.
Egypt’s Sisi stressed need to move ahead with implementing all stages of Gaza ceasefire deal, and urged Trump to support and oversee its execution, the statement added.
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French president Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that the coming hours will be decisive for cementing peace in Gaza and that the current conference on the matter held in Paris aimed to work in parallel with the US initiative.
France is hosting a meeting of foreign ministers from Western and Arab countries in Paris on Thursday to discuss an international peacekeeping force and reconstruction assistance for Gaza once the fighting stops.
Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas signed an agreement on Thursday to cease fire and free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the first phase of US president Donald Trump’s initiative to end the war in Gaza.
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