Ceasefire in Gaza approved by Israeli cabinet

U.S. said to be prepping to send 200 troops to Israel for Gaza support

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Courtney Kube, Monica Alba and Tim Stelloh

The Israeli government has approved the historic deal to end the conflict in Gaza, after a brutal two-year war that has ravaged the Palestinian enclave and sparked a global outcry, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early on Friday local time.

"The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages — the living and the deceased," Netanyahu's office said in a statement posted on X.

Under the terms of the deal, the ceasefire should take effect within 24 hours.

The deal includes the release of all living and dead hostages. Further, Israel will release 250 life-sentence prisoners and 1,700 Palestinians detained after Oct. 7, 2023. 

The agreement also stipulates that Hamas will lay down arms, Israeli troops will withdraw from the territory, and humanitarian aid will be delivered. 

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Eager for the bloodshed, displacement and destruction to stop, many Palestinians in Gaza were relieved to hear news that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a pause in their devastating two-year war. But it was mixed with pain from staggering losses and concern about what comes next.

“Once we heard the news about the truce, we felt happy,” said Ibrahim Shurrab from Khan Younis. “We ask God for the happiness to continue for us and for our Palestinian people and for us to return to our homes despite the pain and suffering,” he added, speaking in Muwasi, an area crowded with tents sheltering Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes.

Nevin Qudeeh said she felt the greatest sense of relief since the war erupted two years ago. She’ll be even happier, she added, when she can return home.

“We’re staying on the streets.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused vast destruction, displacement and suffering in Gaza. The war also brought famine to parts of the territory.

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Brennan Leach, Gabrielle Khoriaty, Ryan Nobles and Lizzie Jensen

Both Republican and Democratic senators praised President Trump for brokering the peace plan between Israel and Hamas.

"I applaud President Trump and the team ... for getting to this step,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters.

“Right now, I am on tenterhooks, because the exciting prospect of this peace deal is monumental. Nothing like it in recent history, potentially, and there are a lot of people who deserve credit for it if it happens. President Trump is among them,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., added.

Several Senate Republicans told NBC News that President Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work negotiating this ceasefire agreement, as well as the deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“Just look at the rest of the conflicts he’s solved just in the first eight months, so there’s no doubt that he should get it,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said.

Omer Bekin and Daniel Arkin

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, said in a post on X that his party will “bring down the government” unless Hamas is “dismantled.”

“In conversations held between the Prime Minister and me in recent days, I made clear that under no circumstances will I be part of a government that allows Hamas’s rule in Gaza to continue,” Ben-Gvir wrote in the post. “This is a clear red line. The Prime Minister has committed to me that this will be so.”

“I told the Prime Minister, and I say to you as well, citizens of Israel: I will not be party to any deception. If Hamas’s rule is not dismantled, or if we are merely told that it has been dismantled while in fact it continues to exist under another guise — Otzma Yehudit will bring down the government,” Ben-Gvir added, referring to his ultra-nationalist political party.

Rachel Goldberg, mother of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, reflected on the stark difference between getting a loved one back alive from Hamas captivity, or dead. “For 28 of the families, this is an extremely, profoundly sad day for the rest of their lives,” she said.

In a post on X, former President Barack Obama said the international community should be "encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is in sight."

Obama said the same goes for the fact that "hostages still being held will be reunited with their families" and "vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered."

"More than that, though, it now falls on Israelis and Palestinians, with the support of the U.S. and the entire world community, to begin the hard task of rebuilding Gaza — and to commit to a process that, by recognizing the common humanity and basic rights of both peoples, can achieve a lasting peace," the former Democratic president added.

Trump told reporters that while the administration knows where most of the hostages believed to be alive are, finding the bodies of deceased hostages could be a "bigger problem."

"Actually, the bodies are a bigger problem, because some of the bodies are going to be a little bit hard to find," Trump said. "The situation with the bodies, you know, they say 20, 28, some are going to be a little bit hard to find. But we're going to do the best we can."

Israeli officials told i24 News, a Tel Aviv-based news organization, that an international force will be created to find the "missing abductees."

Trump incorrectly claimed during his Cabinet meeting that his possible speech before the Israeli parliament, called the Knesset, would be the first by a U.S. president.

Trump said that the Israelis have asked that he speak before the Knesset during his upcoming trip to Israel, possibly this weekend.

"It's the first time a president has ever done that. So that makes it very interesting, right? But, yeah, so I will. I will do it if they want me to. They have asked me," Trump said.

Except several sitting U.S. presidents have delivered remarks before the Knesset, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, according to the body's official website.

When asked for comment, the White House criticized NBC News for trying to “poke ridiculous holes in the President’s comments.”

President George W. Bush smiles as Israeli Parliament Speaker Dalia Itzik and President Shimon Peres applaud following his address to Israel's parliament on May 15, 2008.Lior Mizrahi / Pool via AFP-Getty Images file

President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed on the first phase of a ceasefire deal — but there are significant lingering questions about what the 20-point plan will mean for the future of the Gaza Strip.

“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Read the full story here.

During Trump's opening remarks at his White House Cabinet meeting, the president said that he is planning to travel to Egypt for an official signing of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

Trump said they're going to get the hostages back from Gaza "on Monday or Tuesday."

Trump speaks alongside Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting at the White House today.Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images

"I'm going to try and make a trip over. We're going to try and get over there, and we're working on the timing, the exact timing," he said. "We're going to go to Egypt, where we'll have a signing, an additional signing, and we've already had a signing."

Trump said yesterday that he was likely to travel to Israel on Sunday, though he suggested the timing was fluid.

Negotiators met this week in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, which has mediated the talks, which led to the announcement of the agreement yesterday.

Omer Bekin and Daniel Arkin

The Israeli security Cabinet meeting has started, according to an Israeli official briefed on the matter via NBC's Omer Bekin. Following this, a wider government meeting will convene to decide on Trump’s ceasefire and hostage deal.

Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Netanyahu’s office, previously told reporters that a ceasefire would take effect in Gaza “within 24 hours” of the Cabinet meeting.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff told NBC News he has landed in Israel and plans to visit Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, families of people taken captive by Hamas have encamped in a public plaza in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N. and its partners can move now to scale up the delivery of food, water, medical assistance and shelter supplies.

But the U.N. chief said “to turn this ceasefire into real progress, we need more than the silencing of the guns.”

Guterres called for safe access for humanitarian workers, the removal of red tape and other impediments, the rebuilding of Gaza’s shattered infrastructure and funding to meet the immense needs.

The secretary-general told U.N. reporters in New York that the “glimmer of relief” for Israelis and Palestinians must be seized to establish a political path toward ending Israel’s occupation and achieving a two-state solution.

Israeli tanks block the beach road to Gaza City as displaced Palestinians walk on the coastal road near Wadi Gaza today.Abdel Kareem Hana / AP

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met today with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to el-Sissi's spokesman.

The spokesman said el-Sissi welcomed the Gaza ceasefire agreement and said in a statement that Egypt "appreciates and supports President Trump’s efforts to end conflicts and bring peace to the Middle East and the entire world," while Witkoff and Kushner "reiterated the United States’ appreciation for the pivotal role played by Egypt in ending the war and restoring stability to the region."

El-Sissi said he hoped to receive President Trump in Egypt "to witness the signing of this historic agreement in a ceremony befitting the occasion."