Donald Trump has confirmed that Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement to end the war and release the hostages. The Telegraph has more.
His statement came just after officials from both sides unofficially announced that the deal had been approved.
“We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly. Thank you!” the President-elect wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The deal outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian detainees held by Israel, an official told Reuters.
Mr. Trump sent his Middle East envoy to Doha earlier this week to secure the ceasefire before his inauguration on January 20th.
Here’s Trump’s full statement on the deal:
This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signalled to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies. I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.
With this deal in place, my National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven. We will continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords. This is only the beginning of great things to come for America, and indeed, the world!
We have achieved so much without even being in the White House. Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more victories for the United States!
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The last paragraph has the sound of a dodgy sales pitch if I’m honest. Victories for the United States? How is that in any way apposite or even tasteful?
A lot of mixed emotions about this online. Seeing as there’s been no proof of life, what’s to stop Hamas killing even more hostages and claiming they’ve been dead for months? Israel are still giving up a crazy amount of jihadis ( alive! ) in return. ”You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you.” Golda Meir
And there will not be ”peace through strength” at all. Hamas will just regroup. They’ve got the numbers;
”Only 23 out of the 33 hostages to be released are still alive. In return, Israel is releasing over 1,000 murderous terrorists + retreat from Gaza. Why is Israel forced into such a deal by the Biden administration days before him leaving?”
https://x.com/KatEv345/status/1879581289944322305
”Reuters on Wednesday published parts of the hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
According to the report, Hamas will first release the living hostages and then the bodies of the deceased hostages. Israel will release 30 terrorists for every civilian hostage and 50 for every female Israeli soldier.
In addition, Israel will release all Palestinian Arab women and children under the age of 19 who have been detained since October 7th before the end of the first phase.
The total number of released terrorists depends on the number of hostages who will be released and can reach between 990 and 1,650 Palestinian Arab detainees, including men, women, and children.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/402347
I just hope Trump is in charge and not the State Department of ]ipers.
Vipers
Bad Apple kepboard
Trump’s getting a lot of flack for this by his own voters. I don’t understand why all remaining hostages can’t be released by Hamas, especially when Israel are freeing 1000> terrorists in exchange. At least Hamas are getting their jihadis back alive. And those little boys with the red hair better be first out
”No, all of the hostages will not be “released shortly.”
Only 3 hostages will be released by Trump’s inauguration. They can be live or not under the terms of this deal.
That’s 3 out of 98.
30 more will be released later. But 65 hostages are omitted from the deal altogether. That includes the 3 Americans presumed alive. One is a 19 year old boy. They’re entirely omitted from the deal.”
https://x.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1879598370236285091
He is unpredictable which I suppose is better than predictably evil. And he does hear messages from other realms but he is so vain and insecure that he struggles to hear the good voices. Maybe if there is enough genuine goodwill coming from a movement it might begin to have a few positive effects.
Israel are smart and I guess the hostages are programmed to be toast if and when the opposition do not comply.
No, no, no – this is all wrong! The BBC says it woz Sleepy Joe what sorted it all out, not Trump
If you look at the nubers you see clearly that ceasefires seldom last. The idea that a war that has been going on for a while is still completely under central control is absurd. Some sort of trap perhaps. There is no cessation of this conflict. What would that even look like? All seven members of the axis of resistance agreeing merely to a cessation of activities in Gaza? This is insane. Pass a few hostages back and forth and Bob’s your uncle. Can you not see that this is pure theatre?
And can Islam really change while Jews exist anywhere in the World.
Israel would cease to exist if it tried to move back into a peacetime economy now. It is written in.
Huge efforts obviously being made this evening to portray the deal as being created by the outgoing Biden regime on BBC, Channel 4 etc, despite it being reported hours before by Trump. Interesting to see how this plays out..
”agreement to end the war” ?
Hamas has said that ?
Very poor headline indeed.
The only thing Donald Trump did was to tell Netanyahu to arrange a cease-fire, instead of either assassinating the lead Hamas negotiator or bringing last-minute changes to practically agreed cease-fires.
Trump may advertise himself as “Israel’s best friend” but he certainly is not Netanyahu’s best friend. Last week Trump posted on his Truth Social (https://truthsocial.com/) Jeff Sachs’ statement made during the Cambridge Union debate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bl6_MAhg_4, from 43m49s) that Netanyahu is a “deep dark son-of-a-bitch”, responsible for all recent wars carried out by USA (always with UK support).
Many have commented on Trump’s (or his emissary’s) quote that he would make Gaza “Hell on Earth” if Hamas did not release the hostages, by asking exactly what more of a hell could Israel make out of Gaza? For those in doubt of the destruction the Israeli’s have wreaked on the place, the attachment shows South Africa’s legal submission to the ICJ documenting the amount of damage already 10 months ago. Since the rain of bombs has never stopped since then, the red colour is a true rendition of the fires of hell.
And one only has to ask oneself, how would I react if a nation bombed my house, my property, killed my family, my parents, my brothers or sisters, my sons or daughters? Would I love that nation or hate it? Would I happily accept my fate or would I rise up in arms at the first opportunity?
I suggest if Israel (or Trump) wants to stop terrorism in the Middle East, a good place to start would be to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Irak, Iran …
Oops, Iraq …
I’m the only person on here that has given this the thumbs up. Hamas’s violent aggression in October 2023 was horrific and evil. The Israeli government’s response was equally so. But in terms of numbers of people dead, maimed and displaced the Palestinians have definitely suffered tremendously.
This is an interesting link and food for thought:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/RNntwEqHJG6O/
Thank you and yes, Israel/USA initially financed Hamas for political reasons.
It is also interesting to question exactly what happened on 7th October, not to mention the situation in Gaza before that.
Gaza was always under 24/7 surveillance and the monitoring Israeli guards reported more than once that an outbreak was being prepared but their warnings were ignored: was that due to incompetence or intention?
I tend towards the latter because the ensuing military storm and demands for revenge, stoked by malicious and untrue Israeli propaganda of raped women and beheaded babies, etc., led to the current genocide, exactly suiting Netanyahu’s (and others’) clear desire to rid Israel of all its indigenous Palestinian Arabs.
I heard an interview with a former Israeli military official who said the Israeli Defence Force were given strict instructions to let Hamas cross the border, a border which is exceedingly well monitored 24/7.
Furthermore, Egypt warned Israel 3 days beforehand that an attack was imminent.
Things are rarely as they seem.
So we’re assuming Hamas are going to give up their terrorism from now and behave themselves. Ah, how nice!
Unless Hamas are obliterated you still have the ever-present threat of a radical brainwashed cult of Jihadists who will stop at nothing until they’ve secured a global caliphate and all non-Muslims are either converted or slaughtered. It’s like trying to plug up an active volcano.
You cannot ‘obliterate’ Hamas because Hamas represent the Palestinian people who are sick and tired of being locked up inside Gaza or the West Bank, and being bombed, machine-gunned or (particularly children) shot in the head by snipers.
Netanyahu is doing his best to fulfil your wish and nobody currently knows how many tens or hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by his forces, or how many will continue to die through disease or starvation in the interim, even if there is a ceasefire.
Quoting Jeremy Scahill, “Israel’s policy on Palestinians in general is if you don’t bend the knee and agree to subjugation and colonialism and to live as a second or third class citizen, if we even allow you to live, then you’re going to be subjected to economic, military and political warfare as long as you walk this Earth.”
The whole Hamas problem would go away if Israel changed its attitude and treated all citizens the way any civilized person would expect.
What makes everything worse is that Jews were only a small minority in Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century. If you worry about Muslims taking over your country, you should perhaps ask Palestinians how they feel about Jews taking over their country, and that with the unlimited support of the British Administration and later government.