Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal: Timeline explained

The agreement requires all steps — IDF withdrawal from Gaza, freeing the Israeli hostages, and Palestinian prisoners being released from Israeli custody — within 72 hours.

By World Israel News Staff

President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday that he had successfully brokered a ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, effectively ending two years of war that began after the terror group carried out massacres in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The largest terror attack in Israeli history, the invasion left about 1,200 people dead and saw 251 Israelis and foreign nationals kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.

Israel and Hamas are expected to formally sign the agreement on Thursday at noon in Egypt, setting in motion a series of phases outlined in a timetable drawn up by the Trump administration.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli government, including the war cabinet, is scheduled to meet to grant final approval to the agreement.

Once the vote passes, the IDF will begin a partial withdrawal from Gaza’s city centers. Simultaneously, the Israel Prison Service will prepare to release nearly 2,000 Palestinian inmates, including about 250 serving life sentences for murdering Israelis.

The IDF will pull back to the so-called “yellow line” — a perimeter still within the Gaza Strip but outside urban areas such as Gaza City, where Hamas’s main forces and infrastructure are concentrated. That withdrawal will still leave about 55 percent of the Strip under Israeli military control.

Once the withdrawal is complete — expected within 24 hours of the truce signing — Hamas will release the 20 remaining hostages who are still alive after being held in barbaric conditions for the past two years.

Under the terms of the deal, Hamas must release all captives at once and refrain from doing so in public ceremonies, which were seen during the last ceasefire in February 2025.

According to the agreement, all key steps — the IDF’s withdrawal to the yellow line, the release of prisoners, and the return of hostages — must be completed within 72 hours of signing.

Trump told hostage families in a phone call that he expects “everyone will come back on Monday,” though Israeli officials say the hostages could be home as early as Saturday.