After a breakthrough, long-term challenges remain for lasting peace in Gaza: ANALYSIS

President Donald Trump and leaders across the Middle East are celebrating the long-awaited diplomatic agreement aimed at putting a permanent end to the fighting in Gaza, but officials and analysts tell ABC News there is still a long road ahead when it comes to ensuring that peace will be lasting.

Trump announced on Wednesday that a deal had been reached to free all living and dead hostages in Gaza taken on Oct. 7, 2023, in exchange for the release of scores of Palestinian prisoners and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area.

But the agreement covers just a fraction of the president’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which extends well beyond spelling out the initial steps for ending the two-year-long conflict -- establishing a framework for reconstructing Gaza and building what Trump has described as an "everlasting peace."

At the White House on Thursday, the president appeared singularly focused on seeing out the first steps of his plan.

"Well, the first thing we're doing is getting our hostages back," Trump told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce. “And that's what people wanted more than anything else."

Trump was vague about what would follow.

"After that, we'll see, but they've agreed to things," he said. "There will be disarming. There will be pullbacks. There'll be a lot of things that are happening."

 A critical 72 hours

Despite the agreement, mediators could encounter trouble even when it comes to implementing the initial steps of the agreement.

Israel delayed a cabinet vote on Thursday, pushing back the timeline for the release of hostages from Gaza, which is set to take place within a 72-hour window after the Israeli government formally approves the ceasefire deal.

Ahead of the meeting, negotiators were finalizing a list of Palestinian prisoners set to be released in the swap, which is expected to number in the thousands.

The Israeli government eventually approved the deal overnight on Friday local time, and Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff later posted on X that U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, had confirmed the Israel Defense Forces had completed the first phase of the military withdrawal --starting the clock on the next chapter of the arrangement to unfold.

"The 72 hour period to release the hostages has begun," Witkoff wrote.

But earlier, with the ceasefire on the verge of being cemented, Israel and Hamas continued to trade blows. The IDF said on Thursday it struck a major terrorist cell in northern Gaza, stating it was "operating in close proximity to IDF troops and posed an immediate threat to the troops operating in the area.” Hamas decried the attack as a “massacre."

The IDF also released a statement indicating it was on high alert for potential Hamas attacks and abductions ahead of the ceasefire’s implementation.

"This is not the first time Hamas has tried to abduct Israeli soldiers during ceasefire negotiations," said Ahmad Sharawi, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"This serves as a testament that, despite the positive news that the hostages will return home, allowing Hamas to operate as it did before October 7, 2023, would mean that it will remain a threat to Israel in the future. That is why Hamas must be disarmed and prevented from ruling the Gaza Strip," he added.

Hamas has not said publicly whether it would be willing to disarm, but Khalil al-Hayya, the militant group’s chief negotiator, said Hamas had received guarantees from the U.S. and other mediators "that the war has completely ended" with the signing of the agreement.

While Trump’s overall 20-point plan does indeed call for the disarming of Hamas and stipulates that the militant group cannot play a role in the future governance of Gaza, these points are not covered by the initial phase of the agreement.

A potential security vacuum in Gaza could quickly become a major point of concern, according to David Butter, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"The Trump plan calls for aid deliveries to be stepped up, including through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which is to be opened in both directions," Butter said.

"But the plan does not spell out what will happen to the Israeli military presence on the Gaza side of this crossing, and in the Philadelphi Corridor," he continued.

A U.S. official said on Thursday that CENTCOM was establishing a coordination center in Israel to monitor the ceasefire agreement and help facilitate the flow of aid and security assistance into Gaza. But the official and the White House have stressed that no American troops will be on the ground in Gaza.

Trump’s framework also calls for the creation of an "International Stabilization Force (ISF)" to be deployed to Gaza, but officials say negotiators have yet to scratch the surface when it comes to establishing and financing the entity.

Butter also says that, as it stands, the president’s plan for disarming Hamas lacks "any clear enforcement mechanism."

In the wake of the initial agreement, Trump did not indicate that the U.S. would play any part in securing Gaza.

"Well, we’re going to work with very wealthy countries that love people, frankly," he said. "You know, these are the wealthiest countries in the world. And they’ll be, very much involved in making it -- making it as good as possible."

A hazy future for Gaza

When asked on Thursday whether he would stand by his commitment that no Palestinians would be forced to leave Gaza, the president was similarly vague, despite assurances included in his plan.

"We're going to create something where people can live. You can't live right now in Gaza. I mean, you know, the places, it's a horrible situation. Nobody's ever seen anything like it,” he said, avoiding the question on forced relocation.

Trump was also noncommittal on the prospect of an independent Palestinian state in the future.

"I don't have a view. I'm going to go with what they agree to," he said.

Battling past this ambiguity and continuing pressure on all parties may be the deciding factor when it comes to determining whether peace can in fact be "everlasting," according to Daniel Byman, a professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the Director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"The current deal is a major accomplishment and an important step forward for both Gaza and Israel -- making it last will prove even harder,” Byman said in an op-ed for Foreign Policy.

"The good news is that some of the factors that contributed to a deal, such as exhaustion on both sides and Arab and European pressure, are likely to continue. Other factors are more tenuous," he said, arguing either side could ultimately decide the sacrifices it must make to uphold the plan are untenable and violate the terms of the deal.

"All this means the United States must constantly coordinate with its partners and press all parties to honor the deal -- and move to more ambitious steps involving the reconstruction of Gaza, the return of a non-Hamas government, and progress toward a Palestinian state," Byman added.

Whether the president will stay committed long beyond the signing ceremony is an open question, he said.

"Trump, however, is mercurial. His positions might change; he might focus on a different problem or otherwise reduce the pressure on Israel," he said.