Gaza City, Gaza - Israel and Hamas on Thursday struck a ceasefire and captive exchange deal, in a major step to end the destruction of Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The agreement in Egypt follows a 20-point plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, after more than two years of what numerous experts have determined to be an Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

Trump, who announced the breakthrough on Wednesday, was expected to be in Jerusalem on Sunday, the office of his Israeli counterpart said. The Republican hinted he might also go to Egypt and consider going to Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet was expected to approve the deal, which would make a subsequent full government vote a formality.

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Here is what we know so far about the deal that sparked jubilant scenes in Gaza, which has been experiencing catastrophic hunger under an illegal Israeli blockade.

Hamas will release 20 living captives taken in the October 7 attack on Israel, as part of the first phase of the deal, according to a source close to the Hamas negotiating team.

Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian captives: 250 among those serving life sentences, and 1,700 others caged since the start of the war, a top Hamas official within Hamas told AFP, also on condition of anonymity.

There has been no indication that Israel will disclose the names of those set for release.

An Israeli government spokesperson said that the ceasefire will take hold within 24 hours of the cabinet signing on to the deal, and the exchanges will take place over the 72 hours after that.

Of the 251 people taken during the October 7 attack, 47 are still being held in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

A key point in the negotiations was a list of Palestinian captives submitted by Hamas which it wants released from Israeli jails in the truce's first phase.

Marwan Barghouti – an icon of Palestinian resistance and member of Fatah, Hamas' rival – is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media, but Israel is refusing his release.

Negotiations over prisoner lists were still ongoing on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera.

A daily minimum of 400 trucks of aid will enter the Gaza Strip for the first five days of the ceasefire, to be increased in following days, the Hamas source said.

It also provides for the "return of displaced persons from the south of the Gaza Strip to Gaza (City) and the north immediately," the source added.

The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said his agency was prepared to "scale up its work to meet the dire health needs of patients across Gaza, and to support rehabilitation of the destroyed health system".

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The UN agency for Palestinian refugees welcomed the deal as a "huge relief", and said it was ready to flood Gaza with desperately-needed food.

"We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months," the agency's chief Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

Famine has been declared in parts of Gaza and almost one in six children in the strip is severely malnourished after months of starvation imposed by Israel.

The deal stipulates "scheduled withdrawals" of Israeli troops, the Hamas top official said, and includes "guarantees from President Trump and the mediators".

The Israeli military said on Thursday it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza as part of the deal.

Trump's 20-point plan, on which the indirect negotiations were based, calls for the disarmament of Hamas and for post-war Gaza to be ruled by a foreign authority headed by the US president and also including former British prime minister Tony Blair.

But these points, which were drafted without the consultation or consent of Palestinians, are yet to be addressed.

The plan also offers next to no prospects for Palestinian self-determination, with Israel repeatedly vowing to prevent it.

A Hamas official said negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire would begin "immediately."

Israel has violated or outright withdrawn from previous ceasefire agreements, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court over crimes against humanity – has already hinted that he intends to keep Gaza under occupation.