Updates: Trump says Israel, Hamas reach Gaza ceasefire deal

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Read more on the Trump announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal in Gaza here.

To watch testimonies of Palestinians from Gaza as the war enters its third year, go here.

And to keep up with all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, click here.

We will be closing this page soon. Here are today’s main events:

• Trump says Israel and Hamas have reached a “first phase” agreement towards a Gaza peace plan. Earlier, he said he may travel to Egypt this weekend to announce the ceasefire deal.
• Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari confirmed that mediators have agreed on “all the provisions and implementation mechanisms” of the plan’s first phase.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry reports at least eight Palestinians killed and 61 injured in Israeli strikes on the enclave.
• Al Jazeera Arabic reports that Israeli forces detonated car bombs in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood earlier today.
• Spain’s parliament approves arms embargo on Israel over what PM Pedro Sanchez called a “genocide in Gaza”.
• Israeli politician Gideon Saar criticises a planned meeting of European, Arab and other diplomats in Paris on Thursday to discuss Gaza’s post-war transition and long-term ceasefire efforts.
• Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry demands the release of three lawmakers detained after Israeli forces intercepted all nine vessels of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition attempting to break the Gaza blockade.
• In the occupied West Bank, settlers carried out multiple raids. One Palestinian man was killed and three others were wounded when settlers opened fire in the village of Deir Jarir.

US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan offers some constructive proposals on captives, humanitarian aid and reconstruction. Yet, it is marred by an unmistakable colonial framework: Gaza is to be overseen by Trump himself, with former British PM Tony Blair and other outsiders cast as trustees for Palestinian governance, while Palestinian statehood is deferred indefinitely.

This logic is not new. It repeats the century-long Anglo-American approach to Palestine, beginning with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, when the UK acquired the Mandate over Palestine, and continuing through successive US interventions, direct and indirect, in the region since 1945.

A real peace plan must eliminate the colonial scaffolding. It should restore Palestinian sovereignty by addressing the central issue: Palestinian statehood.

Read more of this opinion piece here.

Throughout the day, when we were doing our work, a lot of people approached us and asked us about this moment.

A lot of people don’t have electricity or access to the internet – so I’m not hearing any reaction. I think people are trying to catch some sleep. But it happened to be quieter the past night, with no drones in the background, so it gives people peace of mind after the exhausting night.

This is a historic moment – and on a personal note, such a relief.

People will be excited and very happy. But we will see what happens in the coming hours.

Hamas has released its first public statement since US President Trump said the Palestinian group and Israel had “signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan”.

In a post on Telegram, Hamas announced the “conclusion of an agreement stipulating an end to the war on Gaza, the occupation’s withdrawal from it, the entry of aid, and a prisoner exchange”.

The statement called on the US leader, Arab mediators and international parties to “compel the occupation government [Israel] to fully implement the agreement’s requirements and not allow it to evade or delay the implementation of what has been agreed upon”.

The group concluded by saying it will remain “faithful to our pledge and will not abandon our people’s national rights, including freedom, independence, and self-determination”.

“With God’s help, we will bring them all home,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli captives in Gaza.

His statement came shortly after US President Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had signed off on the first phase of a Gaza deal.

A Palestinian man has been killed and three others injured after Israeli settlers opened fire on residents in Deir Jarir, a village east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, says Wafa news agency, citing the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The ministry said 26-year-old Jehad Mohammad Ajjaj succumbed to his wounds after being shot by armed settlers on Wednesday evening. Three others sustained moderate to serious injuries and were taken to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.

Fathi Hammad, head of the Deir Jarir Village Council, said the attack began when an armed settler hurled stones at Palestinian-licensed vehicles on a road connecting Deir Jarir to the nearby town of Silwad.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics provided first aid to Ajjaj, who was struck by multiple bullets before being transferred to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It added that among the injured, one was shot in the thigh and another in the abdomen.

James Hickey, Malcolm Ducker, Hannah Sharpey-Schafer and Sid Khan have arrived at London’s Heathrow airport from Amman, Jordan.

On arrival, their passports were confiscated and they were detained by border police. Hickey and Khan were released shortly afterwards, while Ducker and Sharpey-Schafer were only able to leave the airport two hours later. “We were abused and detained on arrival in the UK,” Hickey said.

Khan, reading from a joint statement, described the Global Sumud flotilla as a peaceful initiative to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza. He said detainees were left handcuffed in the sun for hours, deprived of medicines, subjected to strip searches, and kept in overcrowded cells.

He said consular support was minimal for the British nationals, compared to that provided by other European governments, which arranged swift repatriations for their citizens.

The State of Palestine has accused Israel of waging a “genocidal war” in Gaza in a letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), warning that the devastation has reached unprecedented levels.

Published on the State of Palestine’s official X account, the letter said “while the rest of the world exerts all efforts to stop the bloodshed, Israel, the occupying power, persists with its genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.

It said Israel had “insisted on its criminal path of collective punishment”, accusing it of destroying Palestinian society and pursuing the “colonisation and annexation” of occupied land.

According to the statement, “The casualty toll since October 2023 has surpassed at least 237,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone,” with most homes and civilian infrastructure destroyed. It also warned that Israel’s “all-out assault on Palestinian existence risks being replicated in the West Bank”, citing rising settler violence and forced displacement.

“Israel’s degradation of life and of international law must be halted. On this tragic second anniversary, we reiterate: This genocide must be stopped,” the letter concluded.

The US president will undergo what the White House describes as a “routine yearly check-up” at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC, on Friday morning.

Trump may then go to the Middle East, where negotiators are trying to finalise a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel “shortly thereafter”, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt says.

Spanish lawmakers have passed a law ending all trade of arms, defence equipment or technologies to Israel due to the genocide in Gaza.

Watch our report below:

Two years into the war on Gaza, legal scholars have emphasised the importance of labelling the mass atrocities Israel is committing against Palestinians as a genocide due to the legal and political implications of the determination.

Additionally, experts stress that it is the most accurate description of the Israeli campaign, and even some of Israel’s staunchest supporters acknowledged that the country has committed war crimes in Gaza.

But experts said Israel’s brutal assault is more than individual violations of the laws of war; it represents a push to destroy the Palestinians and must be described as what it is – a genocide.

Read more here.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza have sustained major, potentially life-changing injuries over the past two years, according to the United Nations.

“One in four of those injured are children, and more than 5,000 amputations have been recorded,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general.

Dujarric said UN partners on the ground revealed that “insecurity” is preventing many residents from leaving northern Gaza. “People are sleeping out in the open and struggling to survive amid severe food and shelter shortages,” he warned.

The spokesperson said a new, preliminary analysis by the UN Satellite Centre found 83 percent of structures in Gaza City have been impacted.

“About 81,000 housing units have been damaged,” Dujarric noted.

We have been reporting on Trump’s comments regarding a possible Gaza deal in the coming days.

The note that Rubio handed the US president during an event at the White House implored Trump to approve a social post related to a Middle East deal, The Associated Press news agency reports.

“You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first,” the hand-scrawled note read on White House stationery, according to the report.

Rubio wasn’t part of Trump’s roundtable discussion with conservative influencers, but walked into the room, handed Trump the note and whispered something to him, the report said.