Updates: Israel approves Gaza ceasefire deal; Hamas touts US guarantee

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For our report on how Palestinians in Gaza are reacting to news of a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s war on the enclave, see our story from Deir el-Balah here.

You can also check out the view from Israel in this story.

Or for more on a key element of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan – the disarmament of Hamas – see this analysis piece here.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a look at today’s top developments:

• The Israeli government has approved the first phase of the deal, while Hamas’s chief negotiator says he has received guarantees from the US and other mediators that the first phase will lead to a lasting, permanent end to the war on Gaza.
• US President Trump says Israeli captives will be released from Gaza on “Monday or Tuesday” as part of a ceasefire and captive-exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.
• US administration officials said 200 troops will be deployed to Israel to support the ceasefire, but they would not enter Gaza.
• Despite news of the deal, Israel has continued its attacks on the Strip, including an air strike on a house in Gaza City that killed at least four Palestinians and injured dozens more.
• World leaders have welcomed the agreement, but experts stress that serious questions remain unanswered about the future of Gaza; Many say Trump will be critical in ensuring that Israel remains committed to implementing the full deal.

Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, has welcomed the ceasefire announcement as offering hopes of “desperately needed relief” for Palestinians in Gaza, as well as Israeli captives and Palestinian detainees.

“However, Palestinians in Gaza will continue to suffer and die so long as Israel maintains its unlawful blockade of the Gaza Strip,” Jarrah said.

She added that governments also should not wait for the US plan to come into effect before taking action to prevent further violations of Palestinian rights in both Gaza and the West Bank. That includes imposing an arms embargo on Israel and targeted sanctions against Israeli officials.

“Governments should also seek justice for the atrocities committed with impunity over the past two years, including the Hamas-led war crimes and crimes against humanity on October 7 and thereafter and Israeli authorities’ war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide in Gaza.”

The speaker of Israel’s Knesset has formally invited Trump to address the body.

Amir Ohana said it would be the first such address by an American president since former President George W Bush visited Israel in 2008.

“The people of Israel regard you as the greatest friend and ally of the Jewish nation in modern history,” he wrote in the invitation.

Ohana also cited decisions taken during Trump’s first term to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognise Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights seized from Syria in the 1967 war, and his brokering of the Abraham Accords in which four Arab countries forged ties with Israel.

Trump has presented the Gaza ceasefire breakthrough, which he called “momentous”, as his own. And both the Palestinians and Israelis have given him credit for the deal.

But with details of the deal still opaque and the precedents of Netanyahu’s government resuming the bombardment after previous agreements, analysts say Trump’s role is essential in making the ceasefire permanent.

“The US must ensure that this is not another one-phase ceasefire that Netanyahu unravels for political survival,” said Nancy Okail, head of the Center for International Policy (CIP) think tank.

“So, sustained US pressure is the only way to secure a full and lasting end of the war.”

Read more in our story here.

A ceasefire agreement for Gaza, brokered by US President Trump, has spurred cautious hope among Palestinians of an end to two years of Israel’s genocide.

But what impact has the war had on US-Israeli relations?

Experts weigh in on that question and more in the latest episode of Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, below.

We just got a briefing from senior US administration officials on the nitty-gritty of what’s to come next. They emphasise that this is phase one of the two-phase plan that Trump has been brokering, and phase two is going to be much more complicated.

Among the questions that are still unanswered is how to enforce what these senior administration officials called an “almost permanent ceasefire”.

That includes questions over how to get Hamas disarmed, and whether Hamas even agrees to that? Another question is, how will the technocratic government, the coalition that is envisioned to eventually run Gaza, actually work? And then another point brought up in this call from senior administration officials is what would trigger Israel to redeploy?

The officials also said the US plans to deploy 200 troops to help to see that this ceasefire remains. It was emphasised that US troops are not planning to enter Gaza.

So many outstanding questions, and the officials cautioned this is still a very delicate time.

The US president has hailed an initial agreement on the first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. But several questions continue to surround the deal.

Here’s what Trump has said:

• Trump has said he “ended the war”, even as Israel’s government has yet to approve the initial agreement, which only concerns the first phase of the ceasefire. He said the deal will lead to “a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace”.
• Trump said wealth in the region will do “wonders for Gaza”, but did not elucidate a clear plan on rebuilding the devastated enclave.
• He said Israeli captives will be released on “Monday or Tuesday”.
• Trump would not give details on what guarantees were given to assure a lasting ceasefire, saying: “There’s going to be a large group of people determining what it will be … very rich countries are going to be funding it.”
• Trump has said “nobody will be forced to leave Gaza”, after earlier this year suggesting forced displacement of Palestinians.

The video shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flanked by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during the cabinet meeting, where the government is expected to vote on approving the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The deal has not yet been approved.

“We are in the midst of a crucial development. In the past two years, we have fought to achieve our war objectives, and one of the central goals is the return of the hostages – all of them, the living and the dead. And we are going to do it,” Netanyahu said.

“We know that this is for the good of Israel and the United States, for the good of decent people everywhere, and for the sake of these families who will finally be able to reunite with their loved ones.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has slammed Israel’s continued bombings of the Palestinian enclave as the Israeli government is expected to sign on to Trump’s ceasefire plan.

As we’ve been reporting, dozens of Palestinians are trapped under the rubble after an Israeli attack on a building in Gaza City.

“Trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible before the Israeli cabinet’s official vote is not self-defense. It is sadism. Such actions reveal a level of cruelty and disregard for human life that should shock the conscience of the world,” the US-based advocacy group said.

“No one else should die in a war that is already supposed to be over. President Trump should demand that all attacks on Gaza stop immediately, without any delay,” CAIR added.

Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan because it has been banned in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

We’re not expecting a lot of obstacles.

Members of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition have said they’re voting no to the deal. But Netanyahu still should have a broad majority for this to pass.

Netanyahu is currently in the wider cabinet meeting, and in fact, the American envoys are in there too, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were in Sharm el-Sheikh, helping with these talks, helping to find a pathway forward for all of the logistics and the minutiae as part of this deal.

But there are still people waiting with bated breath to see when exactly this is going to be signed, when exactly the ceasefire is going to go into effect, and President Trump has said he does not want any more delay.

Our colleagues at AJ+ have spoken with international law expert Noura Erakat, who says the potential ceasefire doesn’t mark an end to the crisis in Gaza but must be the beginning of a process for Palestinians to hold Israel accountable.

“The architects of genocide, the perpetrators of genocide, the visionaries of genocide must all be held to account. That right belongs to no one – not to give away, not to negotiate – belongs to no one but the survivors of this genocide,” Erakat said.

See more in the interview below.

With all eyes on whether Israel will halt its attacks on Gaza, Israeli military and settler violence has continued in several parts of the West Bank.

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s happened in the last few hours, as reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa:

• Two Palestinians, including a child, were injured after Israeli forces opened fire during a raid in Yabad, a town south of Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
• Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition during a raid in the centre of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, including three Palestinian children between the ages of 14 and 16.
• Israeli settlers attacked an elderly Palestinian man, 75-year-old Odeh Ali Odeh Ghazal, as he was returning from his land near the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem.

Israeli military and settler violence has surged in the West Bank in the shadow of the Gaza war, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes.

Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez has welcomed the ceasefire deal, saying she hopes it will “bring the hostages and prisoners home and end the bombing and starvation of the Palestinian people”.

“We must save Palestinian lives and pursue an end to US complicity in Israel’s war crimes, atrocities, and genocide,” she wrote on X.

“I will continue to work to Block the Bombs, as we pursue a future of self-determination for the Palestinian people and a just and lasting peace for all residents of the region.”

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began, the US has provided its top ally with billions of dollars in military assistance as well as staunch diplomatic support.