TEL AVIV, Israel — After two years of devastating war that killed tens of thousands of people, left millions displaced and pulverized much of Gaza into an apocalyptic moonscape, Israelis and Palestinians celebrated a deal to end to the conflict, even though the Israeli government had yet to formally ratify the pact.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had signaled that Israel would accept the deal, but officials continued to discuss the proposal Thursday night. Even so, celebrations broke out across the country.

The pact was greeted with relief and joy in Gaza, where the militant group Hamas said the agreement would end the war and lead to Israel’s full withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave and to the entry of desperately needed aid.

The deal caps months of torturous ceasefire negotiations and delivers a denouement to a generation-defining fight in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President Trump on Thursday hailed the agreement as a “momentous breakthrough.” The night before, he posted on his social media platform that the deal would involve the hostage-detainee swap along with the Israeli military’s withdrawal from parts of Gaza — “the first steps towards a Strong, durable, and Everlasting Peace,” according to Trump.

“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS,” he wrote.

News of the agreement set off celebrations across Gaza, with residents — exhausted by Israel’s no-holds-barred assault that had upended their lives, erased entire families and brought famine to the enclave — expressing cautious hope.

“I never thought I’d see this day. We’ve been wanting it to come for months now, and then suddenly it happened so fast,” said Ali al-Azab, 34, from the central city of Deir al Balah.

“We’ve been living in fear for so long, waiting for the next bomb to come, to lose another friend. But I also know the war isn’t over yet.”

Word of the ceasefire came early Thursday morning in Gaza, as Mohammad Rajab, 62, was still asleep. His son-in-law, he said, was the first to hear the good news.

“We’re like drowning people clutching at straws,” he said, adding that the ceasefire meant for him the chance “to return to a normal life.”

In Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostage Square, the area of this coastal city that has become the de facto gathering point for Israelis’ large-scale protests to end the war and bring the hostages home, the mood Thursday was jubilant, with people dancing as they waved Israeli and U.S. flags.

Many sported stickers on their shirts with the words “They’re returning,” in reference to the hostages, replacing stickers that previously depicted the number of days they had spent in captivity. At one point, a man blew a shofar, the traditional musical horn used in Jewish rituals, to the crowd’s applause.

Udi Goren, 44, a travel photographer whose cousin, 44-year-old Tal Haimi, was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and taken to Gaza, said his “first instinct was a sigh of relief.”

“For the first morning in two years, we can actually have a true smile because we finally see the end: The end of the war, of fallen soldiers, of hostages being tortured and starved, of the horrific sights from Gaza.”

He credited Trump for pressuring the belligerents to get the deal done.

“There was no real intervention until what we’ve just seen with President Trump finally saying enough is enough,” he said.

The deal, which is more of a framework centered on a 20-point plan Trump released last week, would see all 48 hostages — 20 of them alive, the rest deceased — released. Hamas officials have said in recent interviews that retrieving bodies of hostages will take time, as many are in collapsed or bombed-out tunnels or under the rubble. Those alive could be released as early as Sunday or Monday.

Israel will release 1,700 Gaza residents detained during the war, along with 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel. For every Israeli body returned, Israel will release the bodies of 15 Gaza residents.

Hamas said Thursday that it had handed over the list of prisoners to be released to mediators and would announce the names once they were agreed upon.

Earlier reports claimed the ceasefire had already begun, but Israel continued to pound the enclave Thursday with airstrikes and artillery, with health authorities in Gaza saying at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured.

Video taken by Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera showed tanks shelling Gaza’s main coastal road to prevent Palestinians from gathering in the area.

The ceasefire will be accompanied by a surge of aid into the enclave, a crucial component of the agreement meant to alleviate a crushing, months-long Israeli blockade that has triggered famine in places, according to aid groups and experts. Aid groups and the Gaza Health Ministry said more than 400 people had died of starvation in recent months.

Writing on X, Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, said the group was “on the ground and ready to scale up operations.”

“But we need to move NOW — there is no time to waste,” she wrote.

The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants blitzed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people — two-thirds of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities — and kidnapping about 250 others.

In retaliation, Israel launched a massive military offensive that has killed 67,183 people, encompassing more than 3% of the enclave’s population and including 20,179 children, the Gaza Health Ministry says. Though it does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, its figures are seen as reliable.

Yet much remains unclear, including the fate of Hamas’ arsenal and what sort of presence, if at all, Israel will maintain in the enclave.

Speaking to the Qatari channel Al Araby TV, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel would pull out militarily from all populated areas in Gaza — including Khan Yunis, Rafah and Gaza City by Friday. Another spokesman, Hazem Qassem, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday that the group will not be part of Gaza’s governance in the future but that the group’s arms were to “guarantee the independence of Palestinian decision-making.”

Other Hamas officials have said handing over weapons would take place only as part of a move toward an independent Palestinian state.

Despite Trump’s rhetoric, the deal remains far from the comprehensive peace agreement he has promised. And its success kicks up thornier questions regarding Netanyahu, a deeply unpopular leader with many Israelis who critics accuse of prolonging the war to guarantee his political survival at the expense of hostages’ lives.

Implementing the agreement is likely to alienate his right-wing allies in the government, including extremist figures such as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has called for Gaza to be emptied of Palestinians.

At Hostage Square, Israelis demonstrated their rage at Netanyahu and others who were part of his government. Hecklers shouted, “Go home!” when Benny Gantz, who had served in Netanyahu’s Cabinet, showed up at the square.

Yet even politicians’ presence couldn’t detract from the happiness of the crowd, according to Einat Mastbaum, a 50-year-old Hebrew teacher, who has been coming to Hostage Square every week for the last two years.

“I’m so excited,” she said, her voice cracking as she teared up.

“Today I’m crying from happiness and hope, not sadness.”

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(Special correspondent Bilal Shbeir in Deir al Balah contributed to this report.)

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