US President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed the first phase of a Gaza peace plan after more than two years of war that killed tens of thousands and unleashed a major humanitarian crisis.

Here are some of the key moments in the conflict:

Hamas attacks

Hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrate Israel at dawn on October 7, 2023, storming southern Israeli communities and a desert music festival with gunfire, rockets and grenades.

It results in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

They seize 251 hostages and take them back to Gaza. Israel´s military says 47 remain, many of them dead.

Ground offensive

Israel begins bombing and besieging Gaza. On October 13, it calls on civilians in the territory´s north to move south.

Almost all Gazans have been displaced during the war, according to the UN.

Israel begins a ground offensive on October 27.

More than two years later, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 67,183 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

Truce and hostage swap

A week-long truce between Israel and Hamas begins on November 24.

Hamas releases 105 hostages, mostly Israeli but also Thai workers, in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

When the war resumes, Israel expands its operations into southern Gaza.

Regional spillover

Iran pounds Israel on April 13, 2024, with drones and missiles — its first-ever direct assault on Israel´s soil. The strikes are retaliation for an attack on its Damascus consulate, blamed on Israel.

Israel bombards a Yemeni port on July 20 after a drone attack on Tel Aviv by Iran-backed Huthi rebels who have been targeting shipping since November 2023 in solidarity with Gaza.

On September 17 and 18, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanese group Hezbollah exploded in an Israeli operation that Lebanese authorities say killed 39 and wounded thousands.

Israel escalates its air campaign in Lebanon and, on September 27, kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in southern Beirut.

Israel launches days later a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.

On October 1, Iran fired a barrage of 200 missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Nasrallah and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, assassinated on Iranian territory in July.

ICC warrants

On November 14, a United Nations Special Committee says Israel´s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of “genocide”. Israel accuses the UN of bias.

The International Criminal Court issues on November 21 arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif (likely already dead, as Hamas will confirm months later). Israel appeals.

Second ceasefire begins

A long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas begins on January 19, 2025, allowing hundreds of thousands of war-weary displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.

When the first six-week phase ends on March 1, 33 Israeli hostages — including eight bodies — have been freed in exchange for some 1,800 Palestinians.

Israel allows more humanitarian aid into Gaza, which the UN says faces famine, but then cuts it off on March 2.

Israel-Iran war

Israel strikes Iranian nuclear and military installations on June 13, starting a 12-day conflict.

Washington enters the fray on June 22, hitting three nuclear sites. Two days later, a fragile ceasefire announced by Trump comes into effect.

Israel hits Qatar

Israel targets Hamas officials on September 9 in strikes on the capital of Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict in Gaza.

The strikes are condemned by the international community.

Shortly afterwards, Israel´s army launches a major ground operation in Gaza City.

Trump announces deal

Trump announces on October 8 that  Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his peace plan.

The deal will see all hostages released and Israel redeploying troops to an agreed-upon line, with aid also entering the famine-stricken region.

WASHINGTON: It was a typically theatrical moment for the man who loves to publicly boast of being the “peacemaker-in-chief.”

Donald Trump’s top diplomat interrupted a televised meeting at the White House to hand the US president a note and whisper in his ear that a Gaza deal was imminent.

Shortly afterwards he announced the agreement on his Truth Social network. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!” he posted.

But while the climax played out in front of reporters, including AFP journalists in the room, most of Trump’s efforts had been behind the scenes, as he sought to pressure a reluctant Benjamin Netanyahu and win Arab support.

Pressure on Netanyahu

Seeking an unlikely Nobel Peace Prize and keen to bolster his legacy, Trump’s approach has been different to the blank cheque he has previously been regarded as giving key ally Israel.

When Trump hosted Netanyahu at the White House on September 29 to unveil his 20-point peace plan, he publicly gave the appearance of being fully behind the Israeli prime minister.

Trump said that if Hamas did not accept the plan then Israel would have his “full backing to finish the job” and destroy the Palestinian militant group.

But in private, Trump was putting on the thumbscrews.

Firstly, the plan he laid before Netanyahu and Israeli officials had already been drafted following extensive consultations with Arab and Muslim leaders at the United Nations the previous week.

When Netanyahu was confronted with it, he found there were key areas in it that he had sworn not to accept, especially on his refusal to allow a Palestinian state.

Arab unity over Qatar attack

Trump was also privately incensed by Israel’s attack on Hamas members in fellow US ally Qatar while negotiations were at a sensitive stage. He used Arab unity against the attack to get them all to agree to the plan.

He then ambushed Netanyahu, making him call Qatar’s leader from the Oval Office to apologise. Trump even sat holding the phone for Netanyahu while the Israeli leader read from a piece of paper, a photo released by the White House showed.

Politico reported that a senior Qatari official was also in the room for the call to make sure Netanyahu stayed on-script. Trump later signed an extraordinary order giving Qatar US security guarantees.

The shift also reflected the close ties that Trump has fostered with Arab states during both his presidencies.

In his first term the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco signed the Abraham Accords recognising Israel.

This time around, Trump’s first major foreign trip was to the Gulf states of Qatar, Egypt and Abu Dhabi — with no stop in Israel.

Seizing on Hamas offer

Trump piled on the pressure, giving Hamas a deadline of October 5 to make a deal or face “all hell.”

Hamas responded cunningly, playing on Trump’s well-documented pledge to win the release of all the hostages held in Gaza. Trump has repeatedly met relatives of the hostages at the White House.

Trump quickly seized it as a win.

He issued a video message and, in an unprecedented step for a US president, reposted the statement by the group that Washington has designated a terrorist organisation.

There was no mention of the fact that Hamas had not fully agreed to most of the other points in his plan.

But instead of quibbling over the details, Trump pushed Israel, Hamas and their mediators to quickly thrash out a deal.

Trump told the Axios news outlet that he had said to Netanyahu: “’Bibi, this is your chance for victory.’ He was fine with it. He’s got to be fine with it. He has no choice. With me, you got to be fine.”

BERLIN: Germany’s parliament on Wednesday rescinded a fast-track citizenship programme, reflecting the rapidly shifting mood on migration in Europe’s labour-hungry economic powerhouse.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives pledged in this year’s election campaign to rescind the legislation, which allowed the “exceptionally well integrated” to gain citizenship in three years instead of five.

“A German passport must come as recognition of a successful integration process and not act as an incentive for illegal immigration,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliament.

The rest of the new citizenship law, a signature achievement of former Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat-liberal-Green government, will remain intact despite conservative pledges at the time to undo innovations such as dual citizenship and the reduction in the waiting period from eight years to five.

The SPD, now junior partners in Merz’s coalition, defended their support for the change, saying the fast track was rarely used and the liberalisation’s essence remained.

Of 2024’s record 300,000 naturalisations, only a few hundred came through the fast track, originally planned as an incentive for the footloose and highly skilled to settle in a Germany suffering from acute labour shortages.

Candidates must demonstrate achievements such as very good German, voluntary service or professional or scholarly success.

“Germany is in competition to get the best brains in the world, and if those people choose Germany we should do everything possible to keep them,” the Greens’ Filiz Polat told legislators.

Attitudes towards immigration have soured dramatically, partly because of the strain high migration levels have placed on local services. That shift helped propel the far-right Alternative for Germany party to first place in some polls.