After the Israeli cabinet approved the outline of a Gaza peace deal to release hostages held by Hamas, Israel began its partial military withdrawal on Friday morning. As per Al Jazeera, the peace deal has prompted the movement of displaced families from the southern parts of the enclave to the north.
Forces have pushed back to the lines agreed under Donald Trump’s plan, said the IDF, but will keep on to “remove any immediate threat”.
The initiative to end the two-year war will commence in a phased manner, with Israeli forces withdrawing from some of Gaza’s urban areas, though they will still control approximately half of the enclave’s territory.
“The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages – the living and the deceased,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s English-language X account said.
In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, some Israeli troops withdrew from the eastern area near the border, but tank shelling was still heard.
US President Donald Trump announced early Thursday that Israel and Hamas had reached a deal to end hostilities and release hostages. The agreement, brokered in Egypt, with hostages likely to be released by Monday.
The United States is sending about 200 troops to Israel to “oversee” the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, US media reported.
The task force will “oversee, observe, make sure there are no violations” of the deal, a senior US official told reporters.
According to the official, members of Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish armed forces would be embedded in the US team, Xinhua news agency reported.
The troops will stay in Israel, where they will support logistics, transportation, engineering and planning, the officials said.
“They will not be in Gaza. No US boots on the ground in Gaza,” one of the officials said.
Israel and Hamas agreed to pause hostilities in Gaza on Thursday, a deal Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social network, saying it was the first step to “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace”. Both sides agreed to a hostage-prisoner exchange that would free about 20 Israeli hostages believed to still be alive and the remains of others who have died.