Hope for peace in Gaza

Israel and Hamas yesterday signed an agreement to cease fire and free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of US President Donald Trump's initiative to end the war in Gaza.

Israelis and Palestinians alike rejoiced after the deal was announced, the biggest step yet to end two years of war in which over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, and return the last hostages seized by Hamas in the deadly attacks that started it.

The agreement in Egypt follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump. Officials on both sides confirmed they had signed the deal following indirect talks in the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Under the deal, fighting will cease, Israel will partially withdraw from Gaza, and Hamas will free all remaining hostages it captured in the attack that precipitated the war, in exchange for hundreds of prisoners held by Israel.

Fleets of trucks carrying food and medical aid would be allowed to surge into Gaza to relieve civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom have been sheltering in tents after Israeli forces destroyed their homes and razed entire cities to dust.

Much could still go wrong. Even after the deal was signed, a Palestinian source said the list of Palestinians to be freed had yet to be finalised. The group is seeking freedom for some of the most prominent Palestinian convicts held in Israeli jails, as well as hundreds of people detained during Israel's assault.

Further steps in Trump's 20-point plan have yet to be discussed by the sides, including how the shattered Gaza Strip is to be ruled when the fighting ends, and the ultimate fate of Hamas, which has so far rejected Israel's demands that it disarm.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the ceasefire would take effect once the agreement is ratified by his government, which would convene in full after a meeting of his smaller security cabinet later yesterday.

However, Israel said the release of the captives would "bring the end to this war".

US envoy Steve Witkoff said Trump would travel to Egypt next week for an event celebrating the conclusion of the agreement, with Trump himself saying: "I'm going to try and make a trip over... We're working on the timing, the exact timing."

Despite celebrations and a flood of messages from world leaders hailing the deal, numerous issues remain unsettled in the negotiations.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the Palestinian Islamist movement rejected the planned transitional authority as proposed in the Trump plan.

"No Palestinian would accept this. All the factions, including the Palestinian Authority, reject this," Hamdan told Qatar-based broadcaster Al Araby.

Trump said the issue of Hamas surrendering its weapons would be addressed in the second phase of the peace plan.

"There will be disarming," he told reporters, adding there would also be "pullbacks" by Israeli forces.

A ceasefire was to take hold in devastated Gaza within 24 hours of Netanyahu convening his security cabinet for a meeting that was scheduled to begin at 1400 GMT, the government said.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting yesterday, Trump said the agreement between Israel and Palestinian militant group had "ended the war in Gaza" and would lead to broader Middle East peace.

"We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday," Trump told his assembled cabinet secretaries at the White House.

However, Trump said that the bodies of some of the dead hostages would be "hard to find." At least 47 hostages remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

A source within Hamas told AFP the group would exchange 20 living hostages all at the same time for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal's first phase.

The deal also envisions a surge of aid into Gaza, where the UN has declared famine.

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."

Countries around the world welcomed the deal, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying: "The fighting must stop once and for all."

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Bangladesh believes that diplomacy and dialogue are the only means to resolve any conflict and commended all stakeholders for their efforts in facilitating the diplomatic initiative to end the crisis.

"By ending the ongoing war in Gaza, this diplomatic process would pave the way for the realisation of an independent and sovereign State of Palestine," read the statement. Dhaka also said it wants to take part in the post-war peace efforts and the reconstruction process in Gaza.

The deal was thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.

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.

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, Israel said Barghouti would not be part of the exchange.

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. At least 9 people died in the Palestinian territory yesterday.

Pressure to end the war has escalated massively in recent weeks, and a UN probe last month accused Israel of genocide, a charge the government rejected as "distorted and false".