(Adnkronos) – Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s agreement on the first stage of US president Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza – reached at indirect talks in Egypt is “an historic moment”, Italy said on Thursday.
“This is an historic moment and the result of a collective effort by the entire international community, and in particular by the United States, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey, whose strong commitment we deeply appreciate,” foreign minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X.
Israel’s security cabinet was on Wednesday due to formally vote on the first phase of the 20-point plan, after which the full cabinet will also vote to approve it.
Trump said on Thursday that Israel and Hamas had “signed off on the first phase” of the 20-point peace plan he unveiled last week.
Under the plan’s first stage, once the agreement is formally approved by the Israeli cabinet, a ceasefire will take effect within 24 hours, according a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israel’s military will withdraw to a line leaving it in control of around 53% of the Gaza Strip – the first of three phases of withdrawal to a final “security perimeter”.
A 72-hour countdown will begin during which Hamas must free all of the 20 Israeli hostages believed to still be alive and return the remains of the 28 dead hostages. Israel would then release around 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
Israel will return the bodies of 15 Gazans for the remains of each Israeli hostage, according to Trump’s plan.
Hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid will also start entering Gaza, where a famine was confirmed by UN-backed experts in August.
Trump’s plan specifies that 600 lorry loads would be delivered each day.
Negotiations on many of the details of the later phases of the Trump plan could be hard for Israel and Hamas to reach agreement over, according to observers, especially the disarming of Hamas and its exclusion from any future role in Gaza’s governance.
Trump claims he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for Israel and Hamas’s recent ceasefire agreement, but experts say his prospects of winning the prize – due to be announced on Friday – are remote.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee typically rewards sustained and durable peace efforts and multilateral cooperation, according to the experts.
