Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on a ceasefire and hostage release deal, a Qatari official announced today.
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and comes just ahead of the January 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose team, specifically Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff, was involved in the late-stage negotiations.
The deal, which has not been made public in full, would involve a six-week initial ceasefire phase, the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, the release of hostages held by Hamas and the release of Palestinian terrorists held by Israel.
The first hostages are scheduled to be released beginning on Sunday. As with the earlier hostage releases, this one too will be handled by the International Red Cross.
Trump also announced that a deal has been reached, posting on his social media site Truth Social that “We have a deal for the hostages in the Middle East. They will be released shortly.”
The agreement still needs approval from the security cabinet and from the Knesset. Those votes are expected Thursday morning
This is a developing story and will be updated as more details become available.
All hostages should of been released, bad deal
Hodu laHashem ki tov ke leoliom chasdo
Hashemi is so so kind to us evey single day.
We just have to realize it. Have a great day!!!
oy that’s terrible news, what a sakana for klal yisroel, to let all those barbaric murderers loose again to plan more killings, hashem yirachem!
Thank you Hashem.
Let us all say Tehillim and daven to Hashem and beg Hashem that he should not give any permission whatsoever to those arabs and muslims to even begin any type of planning to hurt us.
You forgot to mention the thousands of terroirs the Zionist are releasing who will undoubtfully wreak havoc in Eretz Yisroel!
finally peace will reign, no more war. why didnt this happen earlier?
Zai nicht ahzoy zicher, only the future will tell
Who are you kidding? Hamas leader, living in Qatar and
protected by Qatar, said next 10/7 already being planned with training under way. How about the other 70 or so hostages? How come they aren’t being released?
This is a huge mistake. IDF will disengage from the Netzarim corridor endangering millions of Yiden.
There is no logical explanation for this.
I have been very active on X and today a vast number of pro-Trump/pro-Israel supporters are a combination of perplexed, angry and resigned. Barring Trump and Netanyahu having aces up their sleeves for a later play to anihalate Hamas, this deal is perceived as a betrayal.
If so, many are predicting that Netanyahu is toast, and that Trump will be excoriated for this monumental foreign policy failure right out of the gate (after all, Trump has a history of shooting himself in the foot).
As for the rest of us, we haven’t the slightest idea what the Borei Olam has in mind at this remarkable historical juncture, when Israel vs Yishmael are at the center of the complete chaos in the world.
If people are familiar with Rabbi Y.M. Sorotzkin’s series “The End Illuminated”, we couldn’t be blamed for surmising that, indeed, the “end” is here and the G’eula is IMMINENT! Fasten your seatbelts folks… the wild ride that we’re presently on is about to become an even bigger whirlwind of epic (biblical?) proportions.
Isn’t this Biden’s work? Trump isn’t President yet.
Kate: this hostage deal was orchestrated by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. Biden is indeed the president by law (“de jure”), but in effect (“de facto”) he’s not an acting president at all, due to his dementia. During these final days of his administration, all of Biden’s people have been reduced to spectators on the sidelines. They’re trying to take credit for the hostage deal (of course), but their attempt rings hollow and makes them look like the foolish, inept has-beens that they are.
No it wasn’t. This has been in the works for months. Trump envoy only went to the region in the last 10 days. Biden and co have been talking this deal since well before the election.
Yeah… talking… talking and getting nowhere. Hamas has had no fear of Dementia Joe or feckless Blinken. Only with Trump’s threat after his election, and Qatar loving Steve Witkoff’s influence (he is terribly compromised due to his multimillion $$$ business ties to terror supporting Qatar) was Hamas forced to yield by it’s masters in Tehran and Doha. And even then, it’s reported this morning that Hamas is trying to backtrack.
The whole situation is a mess from the human being point of view. But here becomes operable the expression: “man plans but G-d laughs”. Hashem is pulling all the strings, and hopefully He’s not willing to allow either Trump or Netanyahu to jeopardize the G’eula master plan.
We’re in agreement.
its amazing how some of the writers are giving praise and hodu, they are so naive and one sided, this is so against halacha to free dangerous murderers who have sworn to go back and do as much damage as they can, these naive writers are probably the ones that keep voting the same public servants of our community back into office, as they fail to see all the issues at hand
To those of you saying bad deal, they won’t be alive if the deal is delayed longer – not just physically but emotionally. These people will have severe psychological issues. If you want to wait until it’s on *your* terms it’s at their expense. They need to be released asap….
And who made it priority to release Hostages?!
DId the soldiers who died on the battlefield get a chance to be redeemed? or was their Heroic sacrifice part of the Horrid price a nation must pay for safety?
The soldiers never asked for that, but they gave their life to protect. They were drafted by the government.
The hostages were drafted by Hamas.
They never asked for this, and we must do everything we can to save them.
But to endanger the nation?!
How does it make sense that some must die for the nations safety, but for others we must endanger the nation for their life?
How does this make any sense?