End of Israel-Hamas War In Sight After Both Sides Agree to Trump Deal

Israel and Hamas have officially accepted the first stage of Trump's Gaza proposal, setting up the end to the Israel-Hamas War after over two years of fighting.

Both countries had informally agreed with the proposal earlier this week, but some changes were still required, and negotiations are still taking place. Gaza and the United States had also originally been waiting for Israel to halt their military attacks, but Israel has ceased all conflict after formally accepting the proposal. They also plan to pass the agreement through their cabinet today.

The first stage of Trump's plan consists of 20 main points that specify how they will end the war and take care of other issues in the area. Now that both sides have formally agreed to the proposal, the war has come to an immediate end, with military operations coming to a complete stop. Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza to the border line, where hostage exchanges will take place in the coming days.

Within the span of a few days, Hamas will return all hostages (alive or dead) to Israel, while Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners and over 1,700 Gazans that were arrested after October 7, 2023. Additionally, for each Israeli hostage whose body is returned, Israel will release the bodies of 15 dead Gazans.

Also, to take care of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, all aid restrictions will be immediately lifted as soon as the proposal is accepted. This will allow full aid into Gaza to assist with the humanitarian crisis, rebuilding crucial infrastructure, and energy generation. This aid distribution will be completely controlled by the United Nations, Red Crescent, and other organizations, with Israel and Hamas having no say in the process.

Read more about the rest of Trump's plan here.

Now, after extensive negotiations involving Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, Israel and Hamas have agreed to put an end to the war. Their changes to Trump's original plan have not been revealed, but both sides are preparing hostage and prisoner releases in the coming days.

However, Hamas remains concerned about Israel and a possible future attack. Throughout the negotiations, Hamas continued to express fears over another attack from Israel– in this deal, they are handing back the Israeli hostages, losing their key leverage in the war.

Nevertheless, polls have shown that most of the Israeli population wants the war to come to an end, and the Israeli government is being increasingly accused of putting their military goals over the value of the human lives of the hostages.

Israel also has their own demands, though, the first and foremost of which is the disarmament of Hamas. Other key details are also still being worked out, including a plan for who will govern Gaza after Israel pulls out. Despite these gaps, hostage releases will commence in the coming days while negotiations continue.

Because of these reasons, while the deal has been confirmed, Israel-Palestine relations remain shaky, and a resurgence is possible in the near future. For now, the war seems to have come to an end, making way for peace in the Middle East and the rebuilding of Gaza, but there is no telling how the rest of the plan will go.

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Image credit to Al Jazeera