“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!” wrote Donald Trump on Truth Social on Wednesday evening.
“Israel and Hamas,” he announced, “have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. 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.”
The news comes five days after Hamas signaled openness to Trump’s 20-point peace plan for the Israel-Gaza war, and three days after indirect negotiations began between Israel and Hamas in Egypt, facilitated by mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey.
According to initial reports, the deal will be signed on Thursday. In a phone call with families of the hostages, Trump said that all Israeli hostages will be released next Monday—in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.
Meanwhile, Israel has agreed to withdraw its troops from Gaza to an “agreed upon line,” Trump said. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the deal as a “diplomatic success and a national and moral victory for the State of Israel,” and said that “all our hostages will be brought home.” Even David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, expressed cautious optimism: “[I]f this agreement holds, the hostages are released, the bombs stop falling and there is a framework for peace after these two ghastly years, it will be a great and welcome achievement.”
Naturally, uncertainties remain—about the hostage release, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and the long-term governance of the Strip. Details will emerge in the coming days. In the immediate wake of the news, we had plenty of questions. Foremost among them: After two long years, is the war in Gaza finally nearing its end?
Here’s what our contributors had to say:
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States
It may not be the end of the war—Hamas apparently still has its guns and is still embedded in Gaza—but neither is it merely the beginning of the end. It promises to be the end of the unspeakable suffering of the living hostages and the families of both the survivors and the dead. It suggests an end to the enervating and traumatic military service of tens of thousands of Israeli reservists. It holds out the hope for ending the agony and homelessness of millions of Gazans and for reviving a diplomatic horizon for the Palestinians. One end is certain—of America’s isolation and withdrawal from the Middle East. President Trump may yet achieve a lasting peace, but he has already restored the Pax Americana.
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Palestinian American humanitarian activist
The war in Gaza is far from over, even if it is tactically stopped for now. The agreement thus far is specific to Phase 1, which relates to the hostage-prisoner swap and a partial Israeli military withdrawal from the Strip. Afterward, new negotiations must commence to figure out the arguably more difficult subjects like Hamas disarmament, an international force entering Gaza, a transitional governance apparatus, and the process of neutralizing any threats emanating from the Strip, during which Hamas is expected to stall, drag things out, and create challenges for the future of the coastal enclave without the terror group. Any respite from the horrors of war is indeed welcome news, and hopefully, there won’t be a resumption after this phase is finished. Still, rational thinking and awareness require an understanding of all the challenges ahead.
H.R. McMaster, retired United States Army lieutenant general and former White House national security adviser
As long as Hamas has guns, the war for the security of Israel and the future of the Palestinian people is not over.
Matthew Continetti, Free Press columnist
The Gaza deal is a triumph of coercive diplomacy. By pairing support for Israel with negotiations, President Trump leveraged IDF hard power to gain Hamas concessions. Just as he did in Iran, Trump used the credible threat of military force to achieve his goal. Americans are often tempted to separate force from peace talks, thinking that one must precede the other. Trump doesn’t make this mistake. For him, talk without action is meaningless. Talk with action gets results. And demonstrations of power are integral to the bargaining that culminates in a transaction.
The deal is also a victory for Prime Minister Netanyahu. To date, his alliance with Trump has produced four historic achievements: the Abraham Accords, the demolition of Iran’s nuclear program, the deconstruction of Iran’s Axis of Resistance, and the pending release of the October 7 captives.
Over the past six months, the world has seen what’s possible when America and Israel stand together to confront the enemies of civilization. Let’s not stop now.
Eli Sharabi, released Israeli hostage, author of Hostage, and recent guest on Honestly with Bari Weiss.
This is an amazing moment that I will never forget. We’ve waited more than 730 days for the body of my brother Yossi, who was killed in Hamas captivity. Now my family and Israel can start to heal from the trauma of October 7. Thank you, President Trump and his team, especially Steve Witkoff. We could not have done this without them.
Haviv Rettig Gur, Free Press Middle East analyst
Is the war over? Probably. Hopefully.
Hamas appears to have caved to Arab pressure. The hostages are expected to be released within 72 hours of the deal being approved, and the IDF will withdraw far enough to allow the first steps in Gaza’s rehabilitation and rebuilding to begin.
But Hamas is still there. In the last few days, its forces attacked members of an anti-Hamas militia, part of a wider pattern of clashes with rival groups seeking to replace it in different parts of Gaza. Those kinds of operations tell us it doesn’t plan to go away. It appears to be planning to lie low and ride out the international rebuilding period, and then emerge and reclaim Gaza at some future date.
So the war may end, the rebuilding may begin, but the basic pattern that brought us to this disastrous place, Hamas’s never-ending religious war, won’t go away unless the political forces that have come together to give Gaza this new dawn, especially from the Arab world, manage to move decisively and aggressively to disarm the Strip and begin the kind of deradicalization process that could sideline Hamas over the long-term.
So, Hamas is able to march back into Gaza, flags flying, and able to re establish control. Read Germany, 1918. What’s next, scholarly articles about them being stabbed in the back? In order to establish a long term peace everyone in the region must understand Hamas has suffered a total military defeat at the hands of Israel. To do this its leadership must either be dead or in prison. Read Germany, 1945. That will gain a couple of generations of relative peace. What’s happening now will get you a breather, between rounds.
The Free Press quotes David Axelrod, a political spin doctor for President Obama, not a foreign policy expert, who apparently hasn't even read the full text of the agreement:
Even David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, expressed cautious optimism: “[I]f this agreement holds, the hostages are released, the bombs stop falling and there is a framework for peace after these two ghastly years, it will be a great and welcome achievement.”
Worthless.