Israel army says preparing to pull back troops in Gaza

The Israeli military said Thursday it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza after Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire deal to free the remaining hostages.

“The IDF has begun operational preparations ahead of the implementation of the agreement. As part of this process, preparations and a combat protocol are underway to transition to adjusted deployment lines soon,” the military said in a statement.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living hostages, in a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

The agreement, which follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, is to be signed Thursday in Egypt, and calls for Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Under the deal, there will be a a surge of aid into Gaza after more than two years of war.

The Israeli army said it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza as part of the deal.

Further down the line, Trump’s plan also calls for the disarmament of Hamas and for Gaza to be ruled by a transitional authority headed by the US president himself, though this point has yet to be addressed.

A source within Hamas told AFP the group will exchange 20 living hostages all at the same time for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal’s first phase, with the swap to happen within 72 hours of its implementation.

The timing of the implementation would be announced on Thursday, the source said, while Trump said he believed all the hostages would “all be coming back on Monday”.

‘Tears of joy’

The announcement sparked waves of joy in Gaza, much of which has been flattened by Israeli bombardment and most of whose residents have been displaced at least once over the past two years.

“Honestly, when I heard the news, I couldn’t hold back. Tears of joy flowed. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the constant feeling that we could die at any moment,” displaced Palestinian Samer Joudeh told AFP.

“Now, we finally feel like we’re getting a moment of respite.”

In Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, young people sang, danced and clapped, AFP footage showed.

The deal is being thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Red Sea.

There was none of the pomp around the talks of previous deals agreed in Egypt, in a possible signal that the deeper issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not being addressed.

Qatar said the deal was 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 hostages are to be freed in exchange for 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began, added the source within Hamas.