Breaking news, President Trump has just announced on social media
that Israel and Hamas signed off on the first phase
of a peace agreement.
Let's bring in CBS News intelligence and national security reporter
Olivia Gossis.
Olivia, thank you for being with us.
President Trump says there is an agreement on this first
phase of the peace plan.
What does that entail?
That's right.
This was as much of a nail biter as there
ever was.
There had been expressions of cautious optimism throughout the day,
but it really came together this evening with the president's
announcement.
I mean, even as of this morning, Secretary of State
Marco Rubio was slated to travel for a day to
Paris to meet with foreign ministers from the region about
governance in post war Gaza.
He told lawmakers instead that he called off that deal,
called off that travel because this deal was closed and
it would require him possibly to travel to the region
instead.
An eagle eyed photographer, they even captured a moment when
Secretary Rubio handed President Trump a note that said that
the negotiators were very close and he had to approve
this Truth Social post announcing the parameters of the deal.
We know that negotiators had been working very hard heads
down in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.
And we're focused on this stage at hammering out just
how this initial part of the agreement will work down
to sequencing, how far back Israeli forces will need to
go and what conditions on the ground need to be
in order to have the living hostages handed over.
And once they were close enough, they were joined today
on the US side by special envoy Steve Witkoff and
aide to the president, Jared Kushner.
Top aides to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Rahm Dermer were also
there, a Qatari contingent, Egyptian contingent.
And now this is all still just on paper.
And the real test will come when the hostages are
expected to be handed over in the coming days.
Israel will have to make good on its promise to
deliver close to 2000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange and of
course, to withdraw its forces to an agreed upon line.
We are still waiting for the exact details to come.
But the president announcing tonight something monumental after after two
years of brutal war.
And we want to clarify this is the first phase
of a peace plan.
What else needs to be agreed upon?
That's right.
This is just part of what was a broader 20
part deal that the president laid out first on the
margins of the UN General Assembly to Arab and Muslim
leaders.
That was a 21 point plan.
Then it evolved to a 20 point plan when he
met with Prime Minister Netanyahu who visited him at the
White House in the Oval Office.
And that plan included the scenario for post war, what
governance is supposed to look like, what the role for
the Palestinian Authority might be, what this armament will need
to look like for Hamas.
Those are the details that negotiators are going to have
to continue working on after this first phase.
But President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu had always made
clear that a full scale release of all of the
hostages and the remains still in Hamas's possession were a
prerequisite for the rest of the negotiations to continue.
Olivia Ghassi, thank you so much.
All right.
I want to bring in now CBS News senior White
House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe live outside the White
House.
And the president says there is an agreement, as we
said, on this first phase of the peace plan that
came down from the White House just a few moments
ago in a Truth Social post.
What can you tell us?
Well, Elizabeth, as Olivia had been telling you there, we
we had been anticipating something might come tonight and that
it would come first from the President on behalf of
the negotiators in Egypt.
That statement tonight saying that an initial first phase has
been reached and that he expects that all the hostages
will release very soon.
Whether that's 48 hours, 72 hours from now, whether that's
48 hours, 72 hours after the agreement is finalized by
the Israeli government remains to be seen.
But notable also, he says once they're released, Israel will
withdraw their troops to an agreed upon line as the
first steps towards a strong, durable and everlasting peace.
Thanks all those that have been involved, notably Qatar, Egypt
and Turkey especially, and ends up by saying blessed are
the peacemakers.
This comes after his personal Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff and
his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has close personal business and
political ties to several different Arab leaders having negotiated the
Abraham Accords during the first Trump administration arrived as you
see there in Shama Al Sheikh, Egypt earlier today.
And Egyptian President El Sisi in a speech had invited
Trump to come to Egypt should an agreement be reached.
It was that that caused the president to then tell
reporters during an event with other conservative journalists earlier today
that he would likely make a trip to the Middle
East this weekend.
During that meeting, it was interrupted by the Secretary of
State who slipped the president a note which told him
that they were very close to an agreement and they
needed him to draft this statement.
So you see him there, That was when it was
handed to him and he looked impressed and broke up
that meeting a few minutes later, went out to draft
a statement that we now know tonight.
So we will wait to hear from leaders in the
region overnight into tomorrow morning.
But here at the White House, at least they got
to be quite pleased.
They are quite pleased that this announcement could be made
and at least the first step of these long sought
negotiations.
Just two years and one day since the conflict was
was started by Hamas militants, we may now be on
the verge of heading towards peace.
Yes.
And you said that the President was intending to head
there this weekend.
Ed, is that still on the table?
And is that to negotiate this next phase of the
peace plan?
All he said is that he may go Saturday or
Sunday.
And when when he was asked by another reporter, will
you go dependent on the release of hostages?
Like do they have to be released first before you
go?
He said no, not necessarily.
He also suggested he'd love to go to Gaza itself.
That's unlikely given the current security situation there, but maybe
there's a way to fly over and see some of
it.
Either way, given that it was the Egyptians that invited
him, it appears that's where he would go, likely at
some point over the weekend.
And while there are arrangements being made for the release
of hostages.
And I just want to clarify for our viewers editor
just joining us now.
This first phase of the peace plan involves the release
of all remaining hostages and withdrawal of of Israeli troops.
However, we don't quite know the timeline of how those
events are going to play out.
That's right.
And there had been last week, remember, there was that
20 point comprehensive plan for peace that the White House
released and the Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, very quickly
signed off on.
They had released a map that showed sort of a
phased withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, pulling back from the
coast and then pushing back towards Israel itself.
Conceivably that's up for negotiation.
But that's what they're talking about, is that you'd pull
back to a certain point, then another one, and then
complete withdrawal eventually, one day once all of this is
resolved.
There's still a lot to sort out, though.
Elizabeth, who runs Gaza going forward?
How is it rebuilt?
What happens to Hamas militants who have been involved in
this?
And if they want to renounce their membership, where would
they go?
How would they get there?
And would they be able to go peacefully?
And then what does this mean for the Israeli political
situation?
Domestically?
There's been a lot of concern about how the Prime
Minister has conducted all this.
Does he hold on after this or even during the
talks?
All of that yet to be sorted out.
But the fact that they could signal tonight, phase one
is there is a big deal to this White House
and certainly to those who've been seeking Mid East peace.
Absolutely, Ed O'Keefe, thank you so much.
All right, let's bring in CBS News foreign correspondent Deb
Potter, who is live for us in East Jerusalem.
Deborah, what do we know about #1 the details of
this agreement?
But first I want to ask you, how are people
there in Israel reacting to this?
Well, it's very late here, early hours of the morning,
so there hasn't really been any official reaction.
We've seen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu post on social media
that he hopes to bring the hostages home soon.
But this is going to be a huge moment for
the families of hostages still in Gaza.
It's believed that there are 48 captives.
There's still 20 of them still alive.
This is the moment they have been longing for.
They've been waiting for for over 2 years, campaigning day
in and day out.
People have been on the streets almost every single week,
huge demonstrations demanding that their loved ones come back.
They have not given up, not stopped for one single
day.
So this is going to be the best possible news
after two years of waiting and hoping.
And if things go smoothly, we understand it could even
start as early as this weekend.
In terms of that original 20 point plan, it seemed
that they would come out possibly over 1-2 or three
days.
But exactly what those details are, those have not been
released yet.
We do know that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene
a security meeting of his cabinet to discuss and approve
this plan and to make sure it goes forward.
So that's certainly from the Israeli side.
This will be good news.
And obviously in Gaza, people have been waiting, waiting for
this war to end.
It's a punishing war.
Over 67,000 people have been killed, huge swaths of the
territory have been destroyed, and almost the entire population has
been displaced.
So I think that for people in Gaza, this couldn't
have come any sooner in many ways.
It's coming two years and one day that marked October
7th attacks Hamas on Israel.
And I can only imagine what this must feel like
for the people that are there.
But I'm curious, Deborah, when it was talking about the
20 point peace deal, this 20 point peace plan, how
do folks in Israel feel about the US taking such
a strong leadership role in these negotiations?
Well, certainly from the side of the hostages and and
many of the people who've been out in the streets
demanding that their Prime Minister bring their loved ones home,
they're very grateful for the US involvement and have said
so repeatedly.
In fact, the hostage families even sent a letter to
the Nobel Peace Committee saying that nobody has done more
for peace in this region than President Trump.
So they are thrilled that some, you know, as far
as they're concerned, the US is an integral part of
this peace plan.
And they've long been campaigning Washington to be involved to
make sure that this happens.
So from their side, this will be a very, very
welcome move indeed from the side of Hamas.
They, too, have put out a statement tonight saying that
they appreciate the efforts of both the United States and
the mediators to get involved and to get the deal
this far.
What they do keep reiterating from Hamas aside is that
they want to ensure that the guarantees are there, that
Israel sticks to the deal.
For Hamas, this means that Palestinian prisoners will be released,
that there'll be a staged Israeli withdrawal.
What that will look like, we don't actually know, but
we know at one point they were demanding that that
withdrawal should happen as the prisoners are being released.
Whether that's the case, we don't know.
And of course, then there's those sticking points, disarmament, their
potential exile from Gaza.
Is that going to happen and have those details been
worked out?
That is not clear.
So there's still a long way to go.
But in terms of hostages coming home, that looks like
it could happen very soon.
That's a huge development in this.
Deb Pata, thank you so much from East Jerusalem.
All right, let's bring in CBS News Middle East reporter
Courtney Keely.
Courtney, this first phase of the peace plan, again, including
the release of those hostages, a relief to folks in
Israel and also the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
And I'm curious, you're speaking to people on both sides
of this issue and you have you have contacts there
in the Middle East.
I'm curious what you're hearing from people there on the
ground.
I know it's very early in the morning there.
Yes, it's very early in Gaza.
It's very early in Israel and Jerusalem, but this is
a peace deal that people almost dared not believe could
happen.
Now, we were commemorating October 7th yesterday.
And the first thing that I got on October 7th
was a message from a family in Gaza that said
we're entering the third year of war.
God help us.
And now we're seeing President Trump say blessed are the
peacemakers and the the peacemakers and the negotiators in Egypt
gave him his due.
There were pictures of them hugging.
There was a picture of the top Intel chief that
really represents President Erdogan of Turkey in the room.
Hugs were happening.
But they waited about an hour for President Trump to
take that victorious lap on true social.
We've heard from Karen Levitt that he has a doctor's
appointment, that he should travel on Friday.
We're also hearing from a statement posted by Benjamin Netanyahu
that it's a great day for Israel.
He'll convene the government to improve the agreement and bring
all our dear hostages home.
He thanked the historic soldiers of the IDF and those
whose courage and sacrifice had gotten them to this day.
Now Hamas was decimated.
All their top leaders were taking out the more of
like the external forces in Qatar were at Khalil Al
Haya.
The top negotiator was in Egypt.
But we saw the Qatari Prime Minister.
We saw the top up, a spokesperson and the person
closest to President Erdogan.
We saw all these people in the room coming together.
And when President Trump thanks Arab and Muslim leaders, it's
sincere.
He started this in his administration by making that trip
to Saudi and the UAE and Qatar.
It continued recently with that security agreement with Qatar, the
Arab and Muslim populations and the Arab Muslim leaders want
the Palestinians to see relief.
They want to see this piece.
It works for everyone.
It's in their self-interest.
And now that Hamas really is just a a small,
a small group of militants left on the ground, young
men taking up arms will have to see how they
disarm all of these people in Gaza.
There's a complete breakdown of rule of law.
That will be important.
Every step will be important.
But you see the agreement.
I don't think the Palestinians dare to breathe a sigh
of relief.
But when they see that humanitarian aid coming in, when
they see that there's a new framework and leadership coming
in and the Israelis can move back, they're living in
tents, they're bathing in dirty, polluted raw sewage and see
see what you know, in, in the sea.
They're going to they're having all sorts of medical issues.
So it's going to have to be the almost triage
going in there with humanitarian groups.
And there was mention that President Trump wants to go
to Gaza.
The only way I can see that, excuse me, the
only way I can see that happening is if you
went from the Egyptian side, Sharm El Sheikh is on
the Sinai.
You can travel down to Rafa, which the southern border
of Gaza.
And there could be a kind of humanitarian zone.
We've seen some of the top American leaders kind of
go in and in that area.
That would be safe and secure, but we'll see what
security wise what's possible and where this this will happen.
I mean him, the president being in in person, thanking
all the leaders that he's worked with.
And it is an historic day.
Now obviously we'll get mired in details, but the killing
should stop, the displacement should stop and the hostages should
be released.
Now we're looking at a 72 hour timeline after the
Israeli government convenes and signs that off.
But according to Prime Minister Netanyahu, it looks like he's
ready to get this done, too.
Courtney Keeley, thank you so much.