Bookies have installed U.S. President Donald Trump as the joint-favourite for the Nobel Peace Prize after he brokered the breakthrough Israel-Gaza peace deal, securing an end to the brutal two-year war.

The U.S. president is now the 5/2 joint-favourite alongside Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms in Ladbrokes’ Nobel Peace Prize betting ahead of Friday’s announcement.

It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump should get the prize. 

Both Israel and Hamas agreed Wednesday to the first phase of Trump’s plan to pause fighting and release hostages, a deal that could open the way to ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

The accord, if fully implemented, would bring the two sides closer than any previous effort to halt a war that had evolved into a regional conflict that has reshaped the Middle East.

With just hours to go before judges announce the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, experts are waiting to see whether the U.S. president will win the prestigious award he has been yearning for since his election.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious peace prize, held its final meeting on Monday. This means a decision was made about the laureate before the conclusion of the agreement between Israel and Hamas.

However, the committee could reconsider and make a last-minute change in light of the historic deal brokered by Trump between the warring sides. 

Trump is due to fly to Israel on Saturday to join his Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who are expected to arrive in the Jewish state today.

The deal was struck under pressure from the U.S. president who has made no secret of the fact that he believes he is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump has previously said that it would be a ‘big insult’ were he not to receive the prize and has put pressure on the Norwegian Nobel Committee, claiming to have ‘solved’ seven wars.

He even phoned Jens Stoltenberg, the former head of Nato and now Norway’s finance minister, to lobby for the prize, according to Norwegian media.

His latest feat is the peace plan in Gaza, which will see Hamas release all 20 living hostages in the coming days in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza.

‘This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,’ Trump wrote on social media.

‘All Parties will be treated fairly!’

But critics say this may still not be enough for the president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nina Graeger, the director of think-tank Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) told Financial Times: ‘Putting pressure on the committee, going on talking about ‘I need the prize, I’m the worthy candidate’ — it’s not a very peaceful approach’.

She separately pointed out that his behaviour at home and abroad have hindered his chances of receiving the award.

‘The Trump administration has withdrawn from international institutions like the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accords, and if you look at Trump’s wish to take over Greenland from Denmark… this does not speak in favour of international cooperation’, Graeger told the BBC.

But these are not the only obstacles that Trump faces on his road to winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nominations for the award – which had 338 this year – closed at the end of January.

The prize is meant to honour actions in 2024, which was the year in which he was elected but not yet in office.

The winner will be announced on Friday.

Graeger believes that if his peace plan for Gaza materialises and holds, Trump could be a contender next year. 

It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would nominate Trump for the prestigious award in exchange for Tomahawk missiles, the American-made subsonic precision weapon that launches from ships and submarines.

Zelensky pledged to lobby for Trump to win the distinguished award if he helps to broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, which have been fighting since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. 

‘During our most recent meeting, I didn’t hear a “no”. What I did hear was that work will continue at the technical level and that this possibility will be considered,’ Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv about a meeting he held with the U.S. president at the United Nations General Assembly in New York at the end of September.

‘The plan for ending the war won’t be easy, but it is certainly the way forward. And if Trump gives the world – above all, the Ukrainian people – the chance for such a ceasefire, then yes, he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,’ Zelensky said. 

‘We will nominate him on behalf of Ukraine,’ he added.

The Ukrainian leader also told reporters that U.S.-made Tomahawks – cruise missiles which can strike targets precisely from 1,000 miles away – would strengthen his country and ‘sober the Russians up a bit, bringing them to the negotiating table’. 

Israel and Hamas agreed to Trump’s peace plan a day after the second anniversary of Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, that triggered Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza.

The deal announced by Trump was short on detail and left many unresolved questions that could still lead to its collapse, as has happened with previous peace efforts.

Successful completion of the deal would mark a significant foreign policy achievement for the Republican president, who had campaigned on bringing peace to major world conflicts but has struggled to swiftly deliver, both in Gaza and on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

‘I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,’ Trump said on Truth Social.

Netanyahu said in a written statement, referring to the hostages held by Hamas: ‘With God’s help we will bring them all home.’ He said he would convene his government on Thursday to approve the agreement.

There are 48 hostages still held in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Trump said he believed that all the hostages – including the deceased – will be ‘coming back’ on Monday.

Hamas has said that it is still searching for some of the slain hostages held in the Strip.

A taskforce has been established to locate the deceased missing hostages, an official told the Daily Mail, including representatives from Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar, who will work with forces on the ground in the enclave to find their location.

The prisoner-hostage exchange should take place within 72 hours of the Israeli government vote ratifying the deal later this afternoon, an official added.

Hamas confirmed it had reached an agreement to end the war, saying the deal includes an Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and a hostage-prisoner exchange. But the group called on Trump and guarantor states to ensure Israel fully implements the ceasefire, it added in a statement. 

‘All Parties will be treated fairly!’ Trump said on Truth Social. ‘This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen.’ 

Senior envoys from the U.S., Qatar and Turkey had joined the talks, apparently adding momentum to discussions launched on Monday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed satisfaction Thursday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza and thanked Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war.

‘I am greatly pleased that the Hamas-Israel talks… have resulted in a ceasefire in Gaza, I especially thank US President, Mr. Trump, who demonstrated the necessary political will to encourage the Israeli government toward the ceasefire,’ Erdogan said on his official X account.

Turkey would ‘closely monitor the strict implementation of the agreement’, he added.

The agreement will be signed in Egypt on Thursday.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailed the news as a ‘moment of profound relief that will be felt around the world’.

Under Trump’s deal, Hamas plans to release all remaining hostages, both living and dead, in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Meanwhile, the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza.

A top official within Hamas told AFP Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners: 250 among those serving life sentences and 1,700 others detained since the start of the war.

 A senior Hamas official said the group has handed over a list of Palestinian prisoners who will be released as part of the ceasefire deal.

Zaher Jabarin, who oversees Palestinian prisoners’ affairs, said in a statement the list was prepared in accordance with ‘the criteria agreed upon in the agreement.’

He said the group still ‘awaiting final agreement on the names,’ and that they will be announced ‘once the relevant procedures and understandings are completed.

The names of prisoners rumoured to be released include Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Sa’adat, Ibrahim Hamed and Abbas al-Sayyid.

Barghouti is a member of the Fatah movement and was one of the leaders in the First and Second Intifadas. He is convicted of involvement in the murder of about five Israelis and has direct involvement in around four terrorist activities.

Sa’adat is secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and planned the assassination of Minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

Hamed is a senior member of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank and served as the main planner of suicide bombings during the Second Intifada. He is convicted of murdering 46 Israelis and injuring more than 400 and has been sentenced to 54 life terms.

Al-Sayyid is another senior member of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank and was one of the planners of the Park Hotel bombing in 2002, in which 30 Israelis were killed and 160 were injured.

The exchange should take place within 72 hours of the implementation of the deal, which was also ‘agreed with Palestinian factions’, another source within Hamas said.

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, according to the same source.

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

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

 Hamas called in an official statement on Trump to compel Israel to fully implement the agreement and ‘not allow it to evade or procrastinate in implementing what has been agreed’.

Last night, the U.S. president spoke to the families of those held captive by the terror organisation during a phone call with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

With Trump on speakerphone, Lutnick asked the families: ‘You have the best crowd in the world, what do you have to say to President Trump?’ The entire group of about a dozen people responded: ‘Thank you!’

‘Thank you very much everybody,’ responded Trump, as one of the family members exclaimed: ‘You did it!’

Another family member told Trump: ‘Mr President, we believe in you. We know you’ve done so much for us since you became the president and even before that and we trust you’ll fulfill the mission until every hostage, every 48 of them, are home.’

He thanked Trump again before repeating the president’s own line from the deal announcement back to him: ‘Blessed be the peacemakers’.

Weary Palestinians cautiously welcomed the deal Thursday as a potential breakthrough in ending the two-year war, following days of negotiations in Egypt.

In Tel Aviv, families of the remaining hostages popped Champagne and cried tears of joy when the deal was announced.

Among the photos is a rare picture of Einav Zangauker, mother of 25-year-old hostage Matan, smiling.

She has spent the past two years fiercely protesting for the release of her son, kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz, and against Netanyahu’s government for the ongoing military activity in Gaza.

Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to arrive in Israel today.

The news of the deal comes just two days after the second anniversary of October 7 – the attacks by terror group Hamas on Israel which sparked the current conflict.

Nearly 1,200 people were killed during the incursion, and around 250 people were taken as hostages into Gaza.

Israel’s cabinet will meet on Thursday at 1500 GMT to discuss a plan to secure the release of all hostages held in Gaza, a government statement said after Trump’s announced a ceasefire and hostage release agreement.

‘Government meeting at 18:00 (1500 GMT). Agenda – Plan for the release of all Israeli hostages,’ an announcement posted on the government website said.

On Wednesday night, Trump said the world ‘coming together’ had helped forge his landmark deal between Israel and Hamas.

‘This is more than Gaza,’ Trump told American TV presenter Sean Hannity during a telephone interview Wednesday night. ‘This is peace in the Middle East.’

Trump declared it was a ‘great day for the world’ as he imagined a prosperous future for the war torn area.

‘The whole world has come together on this one, Israel, every country has come together. This has been a fantastic day,’ he said. ‘This is a great day for the world. This is a wonderful day, a wonderful day for everybody.’

Trump also said Gaza will be a ‘peaceful, much safer place’ and the US would remain involved to ensure its safety and prosperity.

‘Other countries in the area will help it reconstruct because they have tremendous wealth,’ Trump said, adding: ‘We’ll be involved in helping them make it successful and helping it stay peaceful.’

Trump confirmed that he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Wednesday night. The prime minister told him, ‘I can’t believe it,’ according to the president’s retelling.

The president then told Netanyahu: ‘Israel cannot fight the world, Bibi, they can’t fight the world.’ He added that the Israeli leader, ‘understands that very well.’

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for all parties to uphold the agreement’s terms, while the EU’s policy chief, Kaja Kallas, wrote on X that ‘the EU will do what it can to support its implementation’.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed the deal as ‘extraordinary news’ and urged its swift implementation, while Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel expressed hope for wider peace in the region.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron said the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas brings hope for hostages, Palestinians in Gaza, and the entire region.

He added the agreement will be discussed in Paris later Thursday during a meeting on Gaza’s future.

‘This agreement must mark the end of the war and the beginning of a political solution based on the two-state solution,’ he said.

Saudi Arabia welcomes possible start of a ceasefire

The kingdom said in a foreign ministry statement that it hoped the peace deal will lead to urgent action to alleviate the humanitarian suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Saudi Arabia also expressed hope that the peace plan would lead to the ‘initiation of practical steps to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders’.

Wednesday’s agreement reached in Sharm el-Sheikh, a favoured location for Middle East peace conferences over the decades with a patchy record of success, is only an initial phase covering handing over hostages held in Gaza, exchanging them with Palestinian prisoners inside Israel and a partial withdrawal of Israel from the enclave.

Plenty of pitfalls remain after negotiators left for later discussions about some of the thornier issues on which previous initiatives have foundered, such as the full extent of an Israeli withdrawal, the disarmament of Hamas and who and how to guarantee that war will not resume after this phase.

For a start, guns have not yet fallen silent.

Trump demanded Israel halt its bombing when Hamas first indicated partial acceptance for his 20-point plan on Friday. That has not happened. Scores of Palestinians have been killed since then in airstrikes and shelling, particularly in and around Gaza City, the focus of a recent Israeli offensive.

However, the bombardment has been more sporadic since Trump declared a deal had been secured on Wednesday, prompting celebrations in Israel, where families of hostages were jubilant in Tel Aviv’s so-called hostages square, and in Gaza, where people gathered among the ruins even as blasts could be heard.

While this is a partial deal, a notable difference from previous ceasefire arrangements is that there is no deadline for reaching a full deal. It does not set a deadline of a few weeks, after which hostilities could resume if talks falter.

The jury is still out on whether that makes this deal more durable. There are those among Netanyahu’s religious nationalist coalition who are already talking of more war.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a staunch opponent of any concession to Palestinians, has called for Hamas to be destroyed after the hostages are returned.

But on this occasion, Trump has been far more vocal in his determination to hold feet to the fire on both sides, leaving less room for Israel to relaunch its offensive or Hamas to delay, even if past experience counsels caution over too much optimism.

Trump announced his plan standing next to Netanyahu in Washington last week with what seemed a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer for Hamas. Yet when Hamas gave only a partial acceptance, Trump immediately demanded Israel stop bombing. And as the days ticked by in Sharm el-Sheikh talks, he warned Hamas ‘all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out’ if it did not sign up.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half of the dead.