BREAKING: Ceasefire in the Middle East

A deal was agreed upon overnight releasing hostages and calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Fox News Radio's Jonathan Savage joins us with the details. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into it. This is West Michigan's Morning News. I
am Schmidty in for Steve, who is back tomorrow morning.
Brett Pikita is here and let's get to the breaking news.
We have been getting lots of information throughout the night.
Jonathan Savage joins us Fox News Radio. He's in London.
We are looking at a potential peace deal, and this
one seems like the most I guess I'll say cautiously optimistic. Jonathan.

(00:24):
What is the latest.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, this is a long awated breakthrough. I would use
the term ceasefire rather than peace, because this is really
just about implementing the first phase of the twenty point
peace plan announced by President Trump a week ago. If
things happen as they're supposed to, then in a few
hours from now, the Israeli government will ratify the plan,

(00:46):
bringing the ceasefire into effect, and that will get the
clock ticking on getting the hostages out. Every remaining hostage
in Gaza would be brought out under this plan, twenty
who are believed to be alive, and the bodies of
twenty eight others. It would bring to an end two
years of pain for them and their families, and also
of course, two years of pain for the people of

(01:09):
Gaza who have lived in incredibly difficult conditions. Tens of
thousands of Gazans have died too in the last two years. Yes,
cautious optimism absolutely where we are at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
So the President seems very excited about this phase one.
As you've said, we're looking at live video from Israel
there in the streets celebrating. What is the world's reaction
to this.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, President Trump is taking the plaudits from the hostages, families,
from the Israeli government, from other governments around the world
for his personal involvement, which is being credited with giving
the momentum to getting this deal across the line, putting
pressure on all sides to finally, after two years, end

(01:52):
the fighting, hopefully permanently. Meanwhile, in Paris, France, many countries
are meeting today to talk about the future of Gaza
and what that could look like and how they could
help out. So certainly there's international momentum behind this steal.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Jonathan, You've talked about this before, and I'm curious, you know,
kind of with this breakthrough moment, if you will, or
the first phase, is there a way that Hamas exists
after this is all said and done, because obviously they
want that. But Israel, you know, that was where they
were adamant with all of the violence we've seen so far.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Right, Yeah, this has been Israel's insistence that they would
have total victory, that Hamas would be ended. Hamas is
fighting for survival as an organization. One of the key
points of this deal is really insisting on is that
Hamas is disarmed, but HAMSS has so far not agreed
to that. That's one of the major sticking points in

(02:46):
getting a long term and permanent peace and permanent end
to the war. Here. Hamas has been threatened with complete
preseration by President Trump. It's also under pressure from Arab
countries to end the war too. But exactly how Hamas
is going to conduct itself in the weeks and months
to come will end up influencing whether or not this

(03:08):
piece deal is coming to fruition completely.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Do we expect the president or a delegation of the
US to head to the Middle East.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
There's certainly already a delegation in the Middle East in
the form of Steve Wikoff, Jared Kushner and others who
have been involved in the negotiations. President Trump says he
may travel to the Middle East in the next few days,
no doubt, to take the products in person, and possible
to give a speech as well, but that's not be
confirmed yet.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
All right, wow, lots of breaking news. We appreciate your time.
Jonathan Savage live in London with Fox News Radio. Thank
you very much.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
We will keep you updated. Whatodradio dot com