Israel Pulls Back Troops as Gaza Ceasefire Takes Effect

The ceasefire in Gaza came into force Friday and Israel’s military pulled back to agreed positions within the Strip after the peace deal was approved by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas now has 72 hours to release all remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be still alive.

News of the implementation of the pause in fighting came as it emerged that the U.S. plans to send 200 troops to Israel to monitor the deal.

A government official told The Associated Press that the American troops will be part of a “civil-military coordination center” set to be established in Israel that will facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The official ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect at midday local time in Gaza, (5 a.m ET). The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced that troops are now stationed at “updated deployment lines in preparation for the ceasefire agreement and the return of hostages."

“IDF troops in the Southern Command are deployed in the area and will continue to remove any immediate threat,” the Israeli military said in a statement.  The IDF now controls 53% of the Gaza Strip. 

Residents of Gaza were reported to be returning to northern and western Gaza City as the Israeli forces withdrew. Up to 600 aid trucks a day will now be delivered to Gaza.

Israeli media reported on Friday that President Donald Trump will fly to Israel on Monday, and deliver an address to the parliament, the Knesset.

Israel and Hamas agreed to the “first phase” of the plan to end the war in Gaza, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social earlier this week. Shortly after the U.S. president hailed what he called a “strong” and “durable” peace after more than two years of conflict.

“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” Trump wrote. “This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly!”

Israel’s cabinet met Thursday night, discussing parameters for the agreement during hours of talks.

Addressing the cabinet, Netanyahu said: “We’ve fought during these two years to achieve our war aims. A central one of these war aims is to return the hostages, all of the hostages, the living and the dead. And we are about to achieve that goal.” 

Hamas announced what it described as a deal “stipulating an end to the war on Gaza, the occupation’s withdrawal from it, the entry of aid, and a prisoner exchange.” In a post on Telegram, the group urged Trump and mediators “to compel the occupation government to fully implement the obligations of the agreement and to prevent it from evading or delaying implementation.”

Trump outlined the 20-point plan last week at the White House alongside Netanyahu. After Trump threatened Hamas last Friday to let “all hell” break loose against the militant group if they did not agree to the deal by Sunday, Hamas accepted the proposal in principle, requesting several adjustments.

Indirect talks in Egypt—mediated by the U.S., Qatar, and Turkey—helped iron out the initial stage of the plan. The details of the final ceasefire deal have yet to be released.

Gazan officials said on Friday that seven bodies had been discovered overnight Over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed with more than 169,000 also injured since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its  figures  do  not  differentiate  between  civilians  and  combatants  and  cannot  be independently verified by TIME.

 The war was triggered when Hamas launched a terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking another 250 people hostage.

Here’s what to know about some key details of the deal.

Release of hostages and prisoners

Under Trump’s plan, the estimated 48 hostages still being held in Gaza are to be released. Once they have been returned, Israel is to release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, plus an additional 1,700 Gazans detained after Oct. 7, 2023. This includes all women and children from Gaza held by Israel, according to the plan.

Trump told Fox News Wednesday after his initial deal announcement that the hostages would probably be released on Monday. This falls within the 72-hour window outlined by Bedrosian on Thursday.

“Israel is preparing to receive our hostages in all conditions they may be in,” said Bedrosian, adding that Israel would have “no tolerance for our hostages to be paraded around like we have seen in the past.”

“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America,” Trump wrote in his earlier Truth Social announcement, thanking “the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

Trump’s team included special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, while Israel was represented by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close Netanyahu confidant.

A crowd of around 200 people gathered in Hostages Square to celebrate the announcement, including former hostages who had been released as part of previous ceasefire agreements and the families of hostages still held by Hamas.

Hamas has not yet received the final list of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged, a Palestinian source told the BBC. The delay was reportedly due to contention in Israel over some of the prisoners Hamas had requested the release of. It was understood that Hamas included prominent Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including former Fatah leader Marwan al-Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences for involvement in attacks that killed Israelis in 2002. 

Bedrosian said that under the current agreement, Barghouti would not be included in the release, adding that the release of the prisoners was a “very difficult” aspect of the deal for Israel. 

An investigation led by the Guardian found in September that out of the 6,000 Palestinians from Gaza held by Israel since the Hamas terror attack two years ago, only one quarter were held on suspicion of militant links.

Reconstruction of Gaza

A critical step in the deal is the resumption of “full aid” into Gaza, restoring levels of incoming humanitarian aid to what was seen in the last ceasefire that began in January, which saw 600 trucks enter the strip daily.

Immediately after the ceasefire takes effect, Israel will let 400 aid trucks enter Gaza everyday for the first five days, and gradually increase that number, a senior Palestinian official told the BBC.

Repairs and redevelopment to infrastructure for water, sewage, and electricity are also set to begin immediately, with necessary equipment set to come in to clear rubble and establish roads, according to Trump’s peace plan. Crucially, aid will be provided to restore functions to hospitals and bakeries in the territory.

An economic redevelopment plan to rebuild Gaza will be set out by President Trump, put together with input from a panel of experts. The plan also says that a special economic zone will be established in Gaza “with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.”

Trump told Fox News that after phase one of the deal, “You’ll see people getting along and Gaza will be rebuilt.”

“Gaza, we believe is going to be a much safer place and it’s going to be a place that reconstructs and other countries in the area will help it reconstruct because they have tremendous amounts of wealth, and they want to see that happen,” Trump said.

Trump’s plan also states that no Palestinian will be forced to leave the territory, and residents are instead encouraged to remain to help rebuild the territory. However, those who wish to relocate can, and they will be allowed to return under the agreement.

Over the course of two years of Israeli ground operations and airstrikes, 92% of Gaza’s housing units have been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations. Only 39% of hospitals in the territory are functional, and 89% of the U.N.’s water, sanitation, and hygiene assets have been destroyed or damaged.

Famine in Gaza was confirmed in August by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a food security body backed by the U.N. Nearly 55,000 children younger than 5 were suffering from a life-threatening type of malnourishment by early August, according to a study published Wednesday by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the main healthcare provider to Palestinian refugees.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGC) also concluded in August that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Weeks later, a U.N. commission of inquiry found that Israel had met four of the five genocidal acts in Gaza laid out by the 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. These included “killing Palestinians, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”

Israel has consistently denied accusations of genocide. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly in September, Netanyahu said regarding genocide claims that “the opposite is true,” citing millions of leaflets dropped by the IDF and millions of text sent ahead of military operations in Gaza.

Trump’s previous suggestion for how to best redevelop the Palestinian territory came after he shared an AI-generated video depicting a rebuilt Gaza in February. The video, which included images of skyscrapers, a golden statue of Trump, and Elon Musk dancing, was met with heavy criticism from Palestinians.

Disarming Hamas and the future governance of Gaza

The agreement has raised questions about Gaza’s post-war administration, which could involve an international body including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Trump told Fox News that the U.S. is “forming a council of peace,” echoing the 20-Point plan’s “Board of Peace” led by Trump that would oversee a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee.”

“It’s going to be very powerful and it’s going to really, I think, to a large extent it’s going to have a lot to do with the whole Gaza situation,” Trump said. “People are going to be taken care of. It’s going to be a different world.”

Per Trump’s peace plan, Hamas, as well as other militant factions in the strip, agrees to have no role in the governance of Gaza. “All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt,” the plan outlines, adding that a process of demilitarization of Gaza will take place. 

The plan does provide the opportunity for remaining Hamas members to decommission their arms and receive amnesty. If requested, Hamas members also have the ability to leave Gaza and relocation to accepting countries will be facilitated. 

The plan also states that Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza, something which has been speculated amid Israel’s offensive within the territory. In May, Trump proposed that the U.S. should “take” Gaza under its control and turn it into a “freedom zone.”

The question of Palestinian statehood

What remains somewhat unanswered for now is the future of a Palestinian state. Arab nations supporting the plan insist it must eventually lead to Palestinian independence, which Netanyahu has rejected. Hamas has said it would cede Gaza governance only to a Palestinian technocrat government supervised by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and backed by Arab states.

The United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada, amongst a number of other western countries, have announced their recognition of Palestine, drawing condemnation from Netanyahu.

As it stands, both Trump and Netanyahu have rejected any possibility of a Palestinian state. Speaking at the U.N. in September, the President said that recent recognitions of Palestine from a number of western countries served as a “reward” for Hamas.

But Trump’s 20-point peace plan suggested that U.S. conditions for recognizing Palestinian statehood could be achieved as Gaza’s redevelopment is in progress and the PA goes under reform. 

The PA governs Palestinian areas in the West Bank, and Israel has previously said that it cannot have any role in the future governance of Gaza.