Lawmakers from Arab Knesset parties expressed joy and “cautious optimism” on Thursday after US President Donald Trump overnight announced an agreement on a deal that would see the release of all hostages held by Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, while framing it as the end to an alleged genocide in Gaza and arguing that there is “no military solution” to the conflict.

Trump, Israel and Hamas announced early Thursday that a deal had been reached to secure the release of all the remaining hostages held in Gaza, in exchange for the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners and a partial IDF withdrawal from the Strip, as a first step in a plan to end the two-year war.

The deal was set to be formally signed Thursday at Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort, with the cabinet scheduled to meet in the evening to ratify it.

“I’m happy that both sides have reached an agreement on the first stage of the deal to end the war. I’m deeply happy for the mothers who will hug their sons tight, and for the children who will finally hug their parents again,” tweeted Hadash-Ta’al party chairman Ayman Odeh, without specifying if he is referring to hostages or Palestinian security prisoners.

The leader of the Arab-majority party came under fire during the last hostage release deal earlier this year, when he said he was “happy for the release of the hostages and prisoners.”

A top official within Hamas told AFP that Israel would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for around 20 living hostages as part of the deal. The figure includes 250 terror convicts serving life sentences and 1,700 others detained since the start of the war.

“No war has proven more than this one that there is no military solution. From here, both peoples must be freed from the yoke of occupation. Because all of us, every single one of us, were born free,” he wrote.

Unlike many lawmakers from Zionist parties, including members of the opposition, who were quick to praise Trump for brokering the deal, none of the Arab parties credited the American president or the Israeli government. Their statements instead framed the agreement as the result of pressure on Israel and inevitability, stressing that it came despite — rather than because of — Israel’s “bloodthirsty government,” as Hadash No. 2 MK Aida Touma-Sliman tweeted.

The Hadash-Ta’al MK, who is among the most fervent opponents of the war and critics of the government, insisted that her party will work to bring down the government alongside efforts to bring about “the liberation of the Palestinian people, and for a future of peace and equality for both peoples.”

Ta’al leader Ahmad Tibi declared that the war in Gaza “must be the last one” and that both Israelis and Palestinians must be freed “from the burden of occupation and blockade.” In addition, “we must prevent the extremists in this government, in their frustration over the outcome of the deal, from igniting the West Bank to satisfy their messianic delusions,” he said, referring to far-right MKs Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Ofer Cassif, Hadash-Ta’al’s only Jewish lawmaker, said that the “great excitement and joy over the signing of the first stage of the agreement to end the genocide and release the hostages” is “mixed with terrible pain and rage over the loss of tens of thousands of innocent people.”

Cassif pledged that “we will not cease the struggle to end the occupation and defeat fascism in Israel.”

Mansour Abbas’s Islamist party Ra’am struck a more conciliatory note, saying it welcomed the deal and urged that it pave the way toward a permanent peace agreement and a two-state solution. He also celebrated the influx of aid expected to enter the Strip as part of the agreement.

Ra’am, which previously served in Naftali Bennett’s short-lived government in 2021-2022 and seeks to join a future coalition, wrote in Arabic that it “welcomes reaching an agreement that will stop the war in Gaza, exchange prisoners and hostages, bring in aid, and end the humanitarian catastrophe that innocent people have paid the price for, which has continued for two years and claimed the lives of tens of thousands.”

The statement called on all parties “to abide by all the provisions of the agreement and to move toward a permanent and comprehensive end to the war,” leading to “a permanent peace agreement to end the conflict and achieve peace between the two peoples and the peoples of the region.”

Sami Abou Shahadeh, the leader of the Palestinian nationalist political party Balad, tweeted that the deal “opens a positive horizon for the millions suffering in Gaza through the entry of humanitarian aid and the programs for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Strip.”

He celebrated the “joy and relief to all the families of the prisoners and the hostages,” referring to Palestinian security prisoners who are set to be released in the deal, alongside the 48 Israeli hostages held by terror groups.

Hadash-Ta’al, a union of the left-wing Hadash party and Arab nationalist party Ta’al led by Tibi, has been engaged in talks for months with Ra’am and Balad to revive the Joint List bloc of Arab parties ahead of the next elections, set for October 2026.

While Abou Shehadeh has been out of the Knesset for three years, since Balad failed to pass the electoral threshold in the last election, he is expected to reenter should the Joint List be revived.

He added that the decision still depends on “the government of revenge and devastation,” referring to the Israeli leadership, but that “the world will impose the next stages of the agreement on [the government],” suggesting that international pressure had forced Israel to accept the deal and would be needed to ensure it abides by it.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Among the bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.