Gaza ceasefire live: Israelis and Palestinians celebrate hostage and detainee releases as key truce issues remain

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The two-state solution would see an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that would exist alongside Israel.

This Palestinian state would broadly be drawn along the lines that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and would have east Jerusalem as its capital.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution.

“In fact, they effectively had a Palestinian state – in Gaza. What did they do with that state? Peace? Co-existence?” the Israeli prime minister told the UN general assembly last month

“No, they attacked us time and time again, totally unprovoked, they fired rockets into our cities, they murdered our children, they turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the October 7 massacre,” he added, referring to the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel two years ago, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the UN's general assembly in New York in September. Photograph: Andrea Renault/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Trump hopes for the 'rebuilding of Gaza' and says he has not made up his mind on two-state solution

We have some comments made by Donald Trump on his way back from the Egyptian summit where Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US signed a declaration as guarantors of the ceasefire deal which is aimed at ending Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.

When asked on Air Force One if his deal and the return of all 20 living Israeli hostages could lead to a Palestinian state, Trump said:

We’re talking about rebuilding Gaza. I’m not talking about single state or double state or two-state. We’re talking about the rebuilding of Gaza.

A lot of people like the one-state solution. Some people like the two-state solutions. We’ll have to see. I haven’t commented on that.

Donald Trump speaks to the media aboard Air Force One after the signing ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

According to the Sharm el Sheikh declaration, the signatories pledged to “pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region”, and also welcomed “the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip”.

But the statement was extremely vague about the path ahead for a sustainable peace between Israel and its neighbours, including the Palestinians, making no mention of a one- or two-state solution.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who co-chaired the summit with Trump, said the Gaza deal “closes a painful chapter in human history” and sets the stage for a two-state solution.

Donald Trump and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi shake hands while speaking to the press during the summit at the Sharm El Sheikh International Congress Centre. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Israelis and Palestinians celebrate hostage and detainee releases as key truce issues remain

Israel and Hamas moved ahead on a key first step of the tenuous Gaza ceasefire agreement on Monday by freeing hostages and detainees, raising hopes that the US-brokered deal might lead to a permanent end to the devastating two-year war.

But contentious issues such as whether Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza remain unresolved, highlighting the fragility of the truce.

In key developments:

• Hamas released the remaining 20 living hostages in Gaza on Monday as part of a swap deal for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees in a rare moment of joy among Israelis and Palestinians.

• World leaders from more than 20 countries later met in Egypt at a summit co-chaired by Donald Trump and Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to try to ensure the limited truce is extended into a durable peace.

• “At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Donald Trump declared at the meeting, with his counterparts lined up behind him. The US president signed a joint declaration with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey intended to turn the ceasefire into a coherent peace plan, amid widespread anxiety over how long the truce will last. Representatives from Israel and Hamas were absent from the signing ceremony.

• In Israel, Trump addressed the Knesset (parliament) earlier on Monday, urging lawmakers to seize a chance for broader peace in the region and saying a “long nightmare” for both Israelis and Palestinians was over.

• In Tel Aviv an estimated 65,000 Israelis in “Hostages Square” cheered when a military helicopter carrying the 20 freed Israelis flew overhead en route to hospital. Live footage of their release and family reunions was broadcast at the square. The bodies of four hostages held in Gaza and handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas on Monday were brought back to Israel, the army said.

• A large crowd also massed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis on Monday to celebrate the return of nearly 1,700 Palestinians detained over the course of the war, while in the West Bank capital of Ramallah people welcomed the arrival of 88 Palestinian detainees who had been serving life sentences imposed by Israeli courts. About 160 more were deported through Egypt after their release.

• The UN warned that Gaza still needed “lifesaving aid”. Aid deliveries had begun arriving in Gaza and far more were poised to enter in the coming days, said the UN’s humanitarian relief branch, OCHA.

• The last Gaza ceasefire broke down after two months in March when Israel resumed its offensive. Trump insisted his 20-point proposal for maintaining peace and rebuilding Gaza would take root.

• The ceasefire appeared to be holding in Gaza on Monday after a two-year Israeli military onslaught that has killed nearly 68,000 people following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

  With reporting by Julian Borger, Seham Tantesh, Daniel Boffey and the Associated Press