Yesterday we learned the first phase of the peace plan had been agreed to by both Israel and Hamas. Now it's a matter of working through the details in a specific order. It starts with a vote in Israel to approve the plan, followed by the IDF partially pulling back within Gaza.
Shosh Bedrosian, an Israeli government spokeswoman, said on Thursday that if the government voted to approve the deal that night, a formal cease-fire would go into effect 24 hours later.
Once the cease-fire begins, Ms. Bedrosian said, Hamas will have 72 hours to free the hostages held in Gaza. Israeli forces, she added, would withdraw to an agreed-upon line, remaining in control of about half of the enclave.
There's a video circulating of President Trump making a call to some of the families of the remaining hostages. They thank him loudly for what he's done and he says the hostages will all be released by Monday.
In a phone call with families of the hostages, you can hear President Trump say all the hostages will be released this Monday pic.twitter.com/rEB07tKy2w
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 9, 2025
Today, Trump clarified that the hostages would be released Monday or Tuesday. He also announced that he planned to be there for the release. He said there would also be a formal signing on top of the signing by his representatives that has already taken place.
Trump says Gaza hostages should be released on Monday or Tuesday pic.twitter.com/c3e2S1oY6f
— Ground News (@Ground_app) October 9, 2025
There are celebrations happening in the streets of Tel Aviv. This translates to:
Thousands of people gathered at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Spontaneously. Nothing is planned. Nothing has been scheduled. We are just together to celebrate this historic day.
Des milliers de personnes réunies place des otages à Tel Aviv. Spontanément. Rien n’est prévu. Rien n’a été programmé. On est juste ensemble pour célébrer ce jour historique. pic.twitter.com/p1THNmdt8W
— Chrystopher Barolin (@ChrysBarolin) October 9, 2025
Today on Tel Aviv's main highway
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 9, 2025
Thank you President @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/mw9thSzhOM
It's not too early to celebrate but it's also worth remembering that Hamas cannot be trusted. If they stick to this plan at all, it's only because they have been defeated on the battlefield.
The history of the Mideast is littered with the scraps of discarded peace agreements, and it’s wise to be cautious. Hamas in particular has a history of agreeing to deals publicly, only to reject them over technicalities later. But one reason for optimism is the terrorist group’s willingness to cede its only real leverage in these negotiations.
Agreeing to free all hostages at once in the first 72 hours of the deal — not in phases, and without the degrading release spectacles of the past — shows that the leaders of Hamas recognize that they have reached the end of the line. Hamas started this war with its horrific terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that left 1,200 Israelis dead. But two years of war have left Hamas a largely spent force. Call this deal what it is: a total Hamas surrender.
So this is just the first phase of this deal. The next phase, where Hamas is supposed to disarm, is still potentially very sticky. But once the hostages are free, they are free. That means Hamas has a lot less leverage and the United States has a lot more credibility to push the deal forward.
We've all seen Trump's cabinet members praising him before the cameras at this point, but today Marco Rubio really seemed genuinely affected when he described how this deal came together. He said that maybe one day the whole story would be told (or maybe not) but President Trump really was heavily involved in leaning on some of the leaders and bringing this deal into reality. He says Americans should be proud to have a president who could accomplish this.
.@SecRubio on the Gaza Peace Deal: "It will go down as a historic moment in the history of our country and something that our country should be very proud of — that we have a President that's committed to not just peace, but to the human aspect of reuniting these families." pic.twitter.com/Zf6M5SS3Vn
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 9, 2025
Pretty nice but it's not just members of his staff giving Trump some praise today. The Washington Post editorial board says that if this phase of the deal happens Trump has made the case he deserves the Peace Prize.
The announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to President Donald Trump’s plan to end the two-year war in Gaza could be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his second term. Indeed, if the deal holds, Trump can legitimately bolster his claim to be a peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 will be announced tomorrow. Trump is eligible because he was nominated by the deadline in January 2025, however the committee seems to be letting us know that the decision was made earlier this week, before the announcement a deal had been reached yesterday.
With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee pointedly said on Thursday that it had reached a decision about who would be named 2025 peace prize laureate on Monday, several days before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire under the US president’s Gaza plan.
Taking into account the timeframe and the composition of the independent five-person committee, most Nobel experts and Norwegian observers believe it is highly unlikely that Trump will be awarded the prize, leading to fears in the country over how he will react to being overlooked so publicly...
Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, said the decision was finalised at the most recent meeting of the Nobel committee on Monday.
Bottom line: Trump is probably not going to get it. The excuse will be that his achievements should really count toward next year's prize, but Obama got the prize his first year in office (2009) and had done much less to earn it at the time. So it's really just and excuse.
The announcement will happen at 5 am eastern time so we'll have the result early tomorrow morning.
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