{"id":304705,"date":"2025-10-13T12:02:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T11:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=304705"},"modified":"2025-10-10T06:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T05:07:35","slug":"hamas-and-palestinian-factions-agree-to-gaza-ceasefire-trump-confirms-deal-was-reached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/10\/hamas-and-palestinian-factions-agree-to-gaza-ceasefire-trump-confirms-deal-was-reached\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas and Palestinian Factions Agree to Gaza Ceasefire; Trump Confirms Deal Was Reached"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and members of the Palestinian negotiating team arriving in Sharm El-Sheikh for talks on ending the Gaza genocide, as seen on a local channel in Cairo. Photo by Khaled Desouki\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cFrom our side, yes,\u201d a senior Hamas official told Drop Site News.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

8 Oct 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Hamas and other Palestinian factions agreed to a framework for the Gaza ceasefire deal today, a senior Hamas official and a second source close to the Palestinian negotiating team told. \u201cFrom our side, yes,\u201d the Palestinians reached an agreement, the Hamas official said, but added they needed to \u201cfinalize some points\u201d with the mediators. \u201cIt\u2019s over, it\u2019s over. It\u2019s been decided,\u201d the second source said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s agreed on it. There are a few things that will be discussed, but it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mediators, the source close to the negotiators said, told the Palestinian side that President Donald Trump planned to personally announce a permanent ceasefire and had offered assurances that the U.S. would not permit Israel to resume the war after retrieving the Israeli captives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great team over there, great negotiators. And there are unfortunately great negotiators on the other side also,\u201d said Trump Wednesday. \u201cBut it\u2019s something I think will happen\u2014got a good chance of happening\u2026. Our final negotiation is with Hamas and it seems to be going well.\u201d Soon after he made those remarks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked up to Trump and handed him a sheet of paper. \u201cI was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying that we\u2019re very close to a deal in the Middle East and they\u2019re going to need me pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty-seven minutes after this story was first published, Trump announced a deal had been reached. \u201cI am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. 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. All Parties will be treated fairly!\u201d he wrote on Truth Social. \u201cThis is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a post referring to the Israeli captives held in Gaza: \u201cWith God\u2019s help we will bring them all home.\u201d In a subsequent post, he added, \u201cTomorrow I will convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Qatar, along with Egypt, has been the main mediator in the ceasefire negotiations. \u201cAn 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,\u201d Qatar\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement posted on X.<\/p>\n

Multiple sources from Hamas and other Palestinian factions have told Drop Site that their central concern in these negotiations was that handing over all Israeli captives would remove nearly all of their leverage if it did not include a complete Israeli withdrawal. Israel has, as a matter of policy, systematically violated its ceasefire agreements with Hamas and also with Lebanon. In entering into these negotiations, Hamas negotiators accepted they were engaging in a high-stakes gamble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a risk, but we trusted President Trump to be the guarantor of all the commitments made,\u201d said Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader, in an interview with Drop Site on Monday<\/a>. \u201cHad there been no commitment from the American president, we would never have agreed to take the risk, because we do not trust Netanyahu or his extremist right\u2011wing team in the current Israeli government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palestinian negotiators, after consultations with a range of factions, agreed to a deal that will keep Israeli forces in Gaza even after all Israeli captives are handed over to Israel. Throughout the negotiations over the past several months, Hamas has insisted it would not enter into a deal that did not include the complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. \u201cThis is something they were not able to move,\u201d the source said. While the exact lines that Israeli forces will redeploy to as part of the exchange of captives are still being worked out, Israeli forces will remain entrenched in Gaza.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The source close to the negotiators said \u201cTrusting [Trump\u2019s] word is the gamble they are taking. If it works, they will be considered geniuses. If it fails, they will be considered fools. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior Hamas official told Drop Site that the Palestinian negotiators have faced unprecedented pressure from Arab and Islamic mediators over the past 48 hours to make significant concessions and to quickly reach an agreement on the aspects of Trump\u2019s plan that address the exchange of captives, a ceasefire, and the resumption of aid.<\/p>\n

In a statement announcing it had agreed to the deal, Hamas called on Trump and Arab countries to guarantee the deal and \u201cto hold the occupation government accountable for fully implementing the obligations of the agreement, and not to allow it to evade or delay the application of what has been agreed upon.\u201d The statement added, \u2060\u201dWe affirm that our people\u2019s sacrifices will not be in vain, and that we remain committed to our pledge. We will never abandon our people\u2019s national rights until freedom, independence, and self-determination are achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The source close to the negotiators said that as part of the agreement, aid deliveries will resume at levels consistent with the January 2025 ceasefire deal. Israel unilaterally abandoned that agreement in March when it imposed a full spectrum blockade on Gaza, resumed its campaign of terror bombings and subsequently unleashed a ground invasion of Gaza City in August. The source said 600 trucks of aid per day would enter Gaza under the agreement\u2014what the United Nations has said in the past is the minimum amount needed in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The senior Hamas official told Drop Site that mediators assured the Palestinian side that the Rafah border crossing would be reopened in both directions. Rafah is the only crossing in Gaza to anywhere besides Israel.<\/p>\n

Israel will release roughly 2,000 Palestinians it is holding captive in its prisons and military camps. The bulk of these will consist of Palestinians taken from Gaza after October 7 and will include all women and children.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s original plan presented on September 29, Israel would also free 250 Palestinians sentenced to life terms.There are ongoing negotiations over the exact number of Palestinians to be released and which, if any, of the most high-profile Palestinian resistance figures serving life sentences in Israel might be freed. Hamas has consistently demanded freedom for Marwan Barghouti, the single most popular Palestinian political leader whom Israel sentenced to five life terms in 2004. On Sunday, Netanyahu reportedly promised Israel\u2019s fanatical, right-wing interior minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that he would not release Barghouti.<\/p>\n

Hamas has also advocated for the release of Ahmad Sa\u2019adat, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Abdullah Barghouti, a senior commander of the Qassam Brigades, who was sentenced in 2003 to 67 life terms, the longest sentence ever imposed on a Palestinian by Israel.<\/p>\n

In addition to the 20 living Israeli captives, there are believed to be 28 deceased. Hamas officials have said that some of these bodies are buried under the rubble of buildings or tunnels bombed by Israel or in areas currently under Israeli military control and that it will take time to retrieve them. The Hamas official told Drop Site that an agreement will be made that would provide more time to recover the bodies of deceased Israeli captives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lead Hamas negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, second from left, and members of the Palestinian negotiating team in Sharm El-Sheikh on October 8th, 2025. Image via Quds News Network<\/p><\/div>\n

On Wednesday, Trump dispatched his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh to try to secure a deal. The Israeli delegation is headed by Ron Dermer, Netanyahu\u2019s minister of strategic affairs. Trump said today, in anticipation of a deal, he will likely travel to the region, \u201cmaybe Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump had given Hamas and Israel a deadline of Friday to complete negotiations. \u201cHe is very eager for the Nobel Peace Prize, and therefore he wants the problem solved today or tomorrow so that the vote\u2026 will be in his favor for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize,\u201d Abu Marzouk told Drop Site.<\/p>\n

Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya\u2014who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Doha, Qatar, on September 9\u2014is heading Hamas\u2019s negotiating team. The top political negotiator for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Mohammed Al-Hindi, is also directly participating in the talks, as is a representative of the left-wing Party for the Liberation of Palestine. PIJ\u2019s Saraya Al Quds force is the second largest armed resistance faction in Gaza holds an undisclosed number of the Israeli captives, along with those in the custody of Hamas\u2019s Qassam Brigades.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, Ziyad Al-Nakhaleh, the secretary general of PIJ, appeared in a rare video address. \u201cThe resistance is engaged in a fierce negotiating battle under what is called the \u2018Trump plan,\u2019 which also carries within it the declaration that the Palestinian people should completely surrender to the enemy. Even so, the resistance has shown its willingness to negotiate on the basis that there are clauses that can be dealt with positively, first among them the prisoner exchange clause, which could be completed in the coming few days,\u201d Al-Nakhaleh said. \u201cBut we must be prepared to confront the enemy\u2019s possible attempts to turn the negotiations into an entry point for the surrender of our people and our resistance. The enemy and its allies must know that we cannot submit to their terms and dictates after all the price in sacrifices that our heroic people have paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas sources have made clear to Drop Site that they believe the only path to a brokered agreement to end the genocide rests with Trump. The alternative is an indefinite continuation of the armed struggle against a U.S.-backed Israeli military.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other deal to be taken. Either this or return to fight with full American support coupled with Arab and Islamic passivity and let-down,\u201d said the source close to the negotiators. He said that while the deal is problematic, it contains some terms that Hamas and other Palestinian factions pushed for in their response to Trump, including deferring major issues that would alter the future of Gaza and Palestine itself. \u201cNo surrender, no disarming, no mass exile, but most of all a permanent end to the war to be announced by Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hamas offered its official response to Trump\u2019s 20-point plan<\/a> last Friday, the movement\u2019s leadership took the position that it only had a mandate to enter into a deal on issues directly related to the Gaza war. But it asserted that negotiations on the bulk of Trump\u2019s proposal\u2014which contains sweeping terms that will impact the future governance of Gaza, including demilitarizing and disarming Gaza and the deployment of foreign troops\u2014would require the involvement of all Palestinian factions, not just Hamas.<\/p>\n

All of these issues, including Israel\u2019s demand that Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups surrender their weapons and Gaza be fully demilitarized, will be deferred to future negotiations. \u201cThe next round of negotiations will be very tricky but going back to genocide will not be easy, even though it\u2019s probable,\u201d said the source close to the Palestinian negotiators. The internal calculus among the lead negotiators, he said, was \u201cthe cost-benefit analysis would favor accepting it. The next negotiations must be conducted in a very smart way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Updates, October 8, 2025<\/strong>: This story was updated with President Trump\u2019s Truth Social post announcing the agreement shortly after publication, as well as with Hamas\u2019s and Qatar\u2019s statements, and Netanyahu\u2019s posts.<\/em><\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Jeremy Scahill – <\/strong>Journalist at <\/em>Drop Site News, co-founder of<\/em> The Intercept, author of the books<\/em> Blackwater and<\/em> Dirty Wars. Reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, etc. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Drop Site News Middle East research fellow Jawa Ahmad contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 dropsitenews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Oct 2025\u00a0–\u00a0Hamas and other Palestinian factions agreed to a framework for the Gaza ceasefire deal today, a senior Hamas official and a second source close to the Palestinian negotiating team told. \u201cFrom our side, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":270605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[87,865,1029,88,475,427,1801,249,70],"class_list":["post-304705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-palestine","tag-qatar","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304710,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304705\/revisions\/304710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}