LONDON and TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his cabinet to discuss the proposed Gaza Strip ceasefire deal on Thursday, with the cabinet and the wider government expected to approve the blueprint to end the two-year-old war.
The cabinet will meet after days of intense negotiations in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Israeli and Hamas representatives hashed out the final details of a plan based on the 20-point proposal presented by U.S. President Donald Trump last month.
Netanyahu is expected to convene his cabinet meeting at 5 p.m. local time — 10 a.m. ET. The cabinet is expected to approve the deal, after which the proposal will be put to the wider government. A government vote to ratify the deal is then expected at around 6 p.m. local time — 11 a.m. ET.
The cessation of all fighting by the IDF and Hamas will go into effect after the Israel government ratifies the deal, according to an Israeli official.
A person wearing a mask depicting U.S. President Donald Trump holds American and Israeli flags at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Oct. 9, 2025.
Maya Levin/AFP via Getty Images
Trump announced on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of the deal, in which all remaining hostages — alive and dead — will be released from Gaza in exchange for an as-yet undetermined number of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. Nearly 2,000 prisoners are believed to be under discussion for release.
The Israel Defense Forces will also pull back to the so-called “yellow line” in Gaza — a reference to a proposed ceasefire map released by the White House last month showing multiple stages of withdrawal. The full details of the agreed-to deal have not been made public and the exact location of that “line” may have shifted during the negotiations.
A senior Israeli official told ABC News that the 72-hour window for Hamas releasing all hostages will begin after the Israeli government ratifies the deal, which it is expected to do on Thursday.
The 20 hostages thought to still be alive are therefore expected to be released all in one group on Sunday or Monday, the official said.
An Israeli official told ABC News that the IDF will have 24 hours to move to the yellow line once the deal is ratified by the government.
“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!” Trump said in a post to social media, explaining the first phase of the agreement.
“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen,” the post continued.
Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, on Oct. 9, 2025.
Ariel Schalit/AP
Key Arab and Muslim states said in supportive statements that they would back the White House plan, all pressing Hamas to accept the blueprint that could end more than two years of intense fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has been largely destroyed by Israeli offensives since the war began after Hamas’ surprise terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Intense strikes across Gaza continued on Thursday, even as the final elements of the deal were hammered out by negotiators in Egypt.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
