World leaders on Thursday expressed hope for peace and urged Israel and Hamas to fulfil their commitments in the hours after US President Donald Trump announced that the parties had agreed to the first phase of a deal signalling a major breakthrough in the two-year war in Gaza. Hamas will release all 20 living hostages in the coming days in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza. 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, Trump wrote on social media. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media: With God's help we will bring them all home. Here's how other leaders responded. United Nations The United Nations will support the full implementation of the agreement and will scale up the delivery of sustained and principled humanitarian relief, an
Prime Minister Modi welcomed the agreement after US President Donald Trump, on Thursday (IST), took to his private social media platform, Truth Social, to announce the development
For 24 months, it's been Israel's ground zero of anguish, uncertainty, torment and despair. But early Thursday, the central Tel Aviv area that's become known as Hostages Square was a burst of unfettered jubilation. A Champagne bottle was popped open to cheers from the crowd. Sweets were doled out. Tears of joy mixed with laughter and long embraces as the news sunk in: The struggle to free Israeli captives held in Gaza appears to finally be coming to a close. Matan is coming home! yelled Einav Zangauker, arguably the most prominent face of the 2-year-long campaign to free the hostages, referring to her captive son. Her arms raised to the sky, she shouted out Thank you! as a crowd of supporters, families of hostages, and former hostages freed earlier in the war filled the square. I want to smell his smell, she told reporters of her son. "If I have one dream, it is seeing Matan sleep in his own bed. After their loved ones were kidnapped in Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack that sparked the
In a major breakthrough, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first stage of a US-mediated peace deal to halt Gaza fighting, release hostages, and begin Israeli troop withdrawal
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The talks will continue on Wednesday, with senior officials from the US and Qatar set to join the negotiations in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh
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In the absence of a ceasefire, Israel has pressed on with its offensive in Gaza, increasing its international isolation
Trump made these remarks while speaking to reporters after she was detained and deported by Israel, where she was participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza
Since the war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel, Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,000 Palestinians and left the majority of 2.2 million homeless and hungry
The United States under the Biden and Trump administrations has provided at least USD 21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel since the start of the Gaza war two years ago, according to a new academic study published Tuesday, the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that provoked the conflict. Another study, also published by the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson School of International and Public Affairs, says the US has spent roughly USD 10 billion more on security aid and operations in the broader Middle East in the past two years. While the reports rely on open source material for most of their findings, they offer some of the most comprehensive accountings of US military aid to close ally Israel and estimated costs of direct American military involvement in the Middle East. The State Department had no immediate comment about the amount of military aid provided to Israel since October 2023. The White House referred questions to
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took credit for an emerging agreement, but it was clear that President Trump was calling the shots
In a Truth Social post, Trump said there have been positive discussions with Hamas and other countries, including Arab and Muslim nations, on the Gaza peace plan
Trump says global negotiations with Hamas for hostage release and ending Gaza war are "very successful and proceeding rapidly"
Israeli forces warned residents who have left the city against returning, saying it was a 'dangerous combat zone'
Trump said on Friday he believed Hamas had shown it was 'ready for a lasting PEACE' and he called on Netanyahu's government to halt airstrikes in Gaza
A video from the Israeli foreign ministry showed Thunberg, the most prominent of the passengers, sitting on a deck surrounded by soldiers
Egypt, a key intermediary in truce talks, said it would host delegations from both sides to discuss a possible exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners
Minutes after journalists gathered outside a Gaza hospital to survey the damage of an Israeli strike, Ibrahim Qannan pointed his camera up at the battered building as the others climbed its external stairs. Then Qannan watched in horror while broadcasting live as a second strike killed the friends and colleagues he knew so well. We live side by side with death, Qannan, a correspondent for the Cairo-based Al-Ghad TV said in an interview. I still cannot believe that five of our colleagues were struck in front of me on camera and I try to hold up and look strong to carry the message. May no one feel such feelings. They are painful feelings. The deaths of the five journalists in the August 25 strikes on Nasser Hospital add to a toll of nearly 200 news workers killed by Israeli forces while working to bring Gaza's story to the world. Those killed in the attack, which left a total of 22 people dead, included Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist who freelanced for The Associated Press