A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The ceasefire in Gaza has begun. At noon local time, the Israeli military said it had pulled back from its positions deep inside the enclave.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
This is the first phase of a plan put forward by President Trump and includes the exchange of Israeli hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians detained and imprisoned by Israel. Trump says he'll travel to the Middle East this weekend. But senior White House officials are advising that the deal is still fragile and there are still parts of the plan that could go wrong.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram joins us now. A lot of elements of this plan are still being sorted through. What are officials worried about?
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Well, good morning, guys. Senior White House officials said yesterday on a call with reporters that there's still a lot of involvement and work to do to make sure there aren't misunderstandings between the two sides. They said this is a very delicate time. There's a short window here where Israeli troops retreat from parts of Gaza. The hostage release and the Palestinian prisoner release is supposed to take place. But the even bigger question is what happens next, and what is the U.S. involvement going to look like?
And like you mentioned, these officials last night said that the U.S. is sending about 200 troops to the region. They're going to be part of what's called an ISF, or an international stabilization force, which was created in part of Trump's peace plan. So their role is oversight - to make sure that there aren't any violations of the agreement, according to White House officials. And they'll be working alongside with Egyptian forces, as well as forces from Qatar and Turkey and the UAE, and keeping those governments, as well as the Israeli government, informed about what they're seeing.
MARTÍNEZ: Will any of those U.S. troops go to Gaza?
SHIVARAM: White House officials said the U.S. forces are not intended to go into Gaza, but they weren't at this point specific about where troops would be stationed. That plan is still being developed.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So in the meantime, what has the president been saying about the agreement?
SHIVARAM: Well, the president's been pretty elated about all of this. He held a cabinet meeting yesterday and talked at length about getting this deal done and repeatedly said that this deal meant peace in the region.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's amazing. I've never seen anything quite like it. I've been very much involved. I've never seen anything quite like it. But it's really peace in the Middle East.
SHIVARAM: And speaking of Trump's involvement, I mean, White House officials said he was involved at many points in the negotiations, that he would even call in himself during the talks to talk with some of the interlocutors. I will say, though, that there are some elements of this agreement that are still a little bit unclear. Yesterday, for example, a reporter asked what would happen if Hamas didn't return all the hostages. Right now there are believed to be 48 hostages, and 20 are believed to be alive. Trump said some of the bodies would be hard to find, but, quote, "we're going to do the best we can." And he didn't really get into what - the consequences of what might happen.
The other thing that Trump is still a little bit unclear on is how Gaza will be rebuilt. He said that wealthy Arab nations would be part of the rebuilding process, but White House officials said yesterday that no financial commitments have been made yet from those nations.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. We mentioned earlier that the president plans to travel to the region. What do we know about those plans?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. So Trump said that he's trying to leave on Sunday to travel to the region. It's not exactly clear yet where he's going, but he said he'd most likely be in Egypt, where those negotiations are taking place. And he was also invited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Israel's parliament, the Knesset. And Trump said he hopes to be there when the hostages are released, which is potentially Monday or Tuesday. So still firming up some of the details of where and when this trip takes place, but the presence of President Trump on the ground speaks to how much of a heavy hand he's had in this process.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thanks a lot.
SHIVARAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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