Hamas and other Palestinian factions agreed to a framework for the Gaza ceasefire deal on Wednesday evening, a senior Hamas official and a second source close to the Palestinian negotiating team told Drop Site. “From our side, yes,” the Palestinians reached an agreement, the Hamas official said, but added they needed to “finalize some points” with the mediators. “It’s over, it’s over. It’s been decided,” the second source said. “Everybody’s agreed on it. There are a few things that will be discussed, but it’s over.”
Mediators, the source close to the negotiators said, told the Palestinian side that President Donald Trump planned to personally announce a permanent ceasefire and had offered assurances that the U.S. would not permit Israel to resume the war after retrieving the Israeli captives.
“We have a great team over there, great negotiators. And there are unfortunately great negotiators on the other side also,” said Trump Wednesday. “But it’s something I think will happen—got a good chance of happening…. Our final negotiation is with Hamas and it seems to be going well.” Soon after he made those remarks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked up to Trump and handed him a sheet of paper. “I was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East and they’re going to need me pretty quickly.” ….more
