WASHINGTON(National times)- US President Donald Trump told Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ programme on Wednesday that hostages held in Gaza will probably be released on Monday, after earlier announcing an agreement between Israel and Hamas over the first phase of a ceasefire. Earlier, Trump said Hamas and Israel have agreed on the first phase of his plan for a ceasefire in the war on Gaza and an exchange of captives. \u201cI am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,\u201d the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. \u201cALL the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel withdraw their troops to an agreed upon line,\u201d he added. Mediator Qatar said that more details of the agreement would be announced at a later date. \u201cThe mediators announce that tonight an agreement was reached on all the provisions and implementation mechanisms of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid. The details will be announced later,\u201d Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari wrote on X. The announcement came hours after Trump said negotiations were going \u201cvery well\u201d and that he may travel to the Middle East later this week. \u201cI may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday,\u201d he told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. Senior officials from Qatar, Turkiye, Egypt and the US joined the delegations in Egypt\u2019s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday, the third day of the talks, as the mediators pressed the two sides to resolve their differences over Trump\u2019s 20-point proposal. The first phase of the plan calls for a ceasefire and the release of 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza, including 20 who are believed to be alive, and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Hamas has submitted its list of detainees to be freed as part of the proposed swap. Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer \u2013 a close aide of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2013 were participating in the negotiations on Wednesday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Also joining the discussions was the prime minister of longstanding key mediator Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. The Hamas delegation includes leaders Khalil al-Hayya and Zaher Jabarin, two negotiators who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Qatar\u2019s capital Doha that killed five people last month. In a statement released late Wednesday, senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq said the group welcomes the participation of Qatar\u2019s prime minister and Turkiye\u2019s intelligence chief, alongside Egypt\u2019s intelligence chief, in the current round of talks. He said their involvement gives the negotiations \u201ca strong boost\u201d towards achieving positive results on ending the war and facilitating a prisoner exchange. A delegation from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group is also set to arrive in Egypt to participate in the indirect talks, according to a statement from the group. The PIJ is the smaller of the two main Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip and is currently holding some Israeli captives. For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the mediated negotiations had made \u201ca lot of headway\u201d and that a ceasefire would be declared if they reached a positive outcome. Al Jazeera\u2019s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara says the talks remain tense with \u201csome serious disagreements\u201d, as crucial details are yet to be hammered out \u2013 including the timing and the extent of an Israeli withdrawal, the makeup of the post-war administration for the Gaza Strip and the fate of Hamas. \u201cYou could say that the initial phase of the initial phase is working out,\u201d Bishara said. According to him, both sides appeared to agree on \u201csome sort of parameters\u201d for a captive-prisoner exchange. \u201cAccording to the plan, \u2026 after Hamas hands over the captives, then the war should be over,\u201d Bishara said. \u201cIsrael says no, the war will be over only after Hamas disarms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISRAELI ATTACKS CONTINUE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even as the talks progressed on Wednesday, Israel continued its attacks on Gaza. At least eight Palestinians were killed across Gaza over the previous 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday. At least 61 others were injured in attacks, it said. Gaza\u2019s Government Media Office said in a statement on Wednesday that Israel carried out 271 air and artillery strikes over the past five days despite calls from the US to stop the bombardment. The attacks targeted densely populated areas and shelters for displaced people across the enclave, killing 126 civilians, including women and children \u2013 with 75 of them in Gaza City alone. Al Jazeera\u2019s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from central Gaza\u2019s az-Zawayda, said the situation on the ground \u201clooks extremely bleak\u201d as Israeli drones are still targeting residential buildings, particularly in Gaza City. \u201cCivilians have said the scale of bombardment sounds less intense in comparison with the days preceding the onset of the current round of negotiations,\u201d Abu Azzoum said. \u201cThey say that might be a sign that mediators are exerting further pressure on Israel to at least mitigate the scale of its bombardment on Gaza for one reason: It\u2019s to allow for Hamas fighters to retrieve bodies of Israeli captives as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal,\u201d he said. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that just 14 of Gaza\u2019s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, and only a third of 176 primary care facilities work. Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said Gaza has been struggling with \u201cdire shortages\u201d of electricity, clean water and medicine, as well as broken equipment and damaged infrastructure in those health facilities still working. \u201cSome facilities have been hit and rehabilitated and hit once more,\u201d she said. Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 people, according to health authorities, and has destroyed large swaths of land in the enclave where almost all two million residents have been forcibly displaced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON(National times)- US President Donald Trump told Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ programme on Wednesday that hostages held in Gaza will probably be released on Monday, after earlier announcing an agreement between Israel and Hamas over the first phase of a ceasefire. Earlier, Trump said Hamas and Israel have agreed on the first phase of his plan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n