What we covered here
• Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire framework that will allow for the swift release of all hostages held in Gaza, Israeli withdrawal to an agreed point and the release of some Palestinian prisoners.
• President Donald Trump said the hostages are likely to be released on Monday. His announcement of the agreement did not address some sticking points in the proposal, including Hamas disarmament and the future governance of Gaza.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement was a “diplomatic success and a national and moral victory” for his country. Hamas thanked Trump and all mediators involved: Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey.
• Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and hostages previously released by Hamas celebrated the news. Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the agreement, cautiously hoping it will bring an end to Israel’s war.
Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has moved here.
Trump can’t “simply take a victory lap now,” expert tells CNN
“There’s a lot that remains very much unknown” about the Gaza ceasefire plan, Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNN’s Laura Coates.
Still, US President Donald Trump and his team deserve “a lot of credit,” Boot said. However, he added: “I think it’s important that President Trump not simply take a victory lap now and say everything is solved, peace has been achieved.”
Previous deals between Israel and Hamas have broken down over disagreements about Gaza’s future, Boot noted.
“Things could easily go off the rails, unless the US stays very closely engaged.”
Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator at the State Department, told Coates this is “not the forever peace plan that Trump has described this as, and it is not Netanyahu’s version of total victory. It comes out in the middle.”
“The sun, the moon and the stars came together," former Middle East negotiator says
“The sun, the moon and the stars came together” to facilitate the Israel-Hamas ceasefire plan, said Aaron David Miller, who served as a Middle East negotiator at the US State Department for more than two decades.
“The people running the show, the internal brigade commanders, are not attached, clearly, to the hostages in the (same way as) Yahya Sinwar,” he said, referring to Hamas’ former leader who was killed by Israel in October 2024.
Secondly, the Arab states banded together to push Hamas to agree to release its Israeli hostages, Miller said.
Finally, the third piece of the puzzle was US President Donald Trump, Miller said.
“Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu is why, in the end, we’re having this conversation.”
Moving forward, the success of the agreement will hinge on Trump’s determination to see it through, Miller said.
“That’s going to be a critical ingredient as to whether or not we get to phase two.”
