“I welcome the agreement signed today, the end of the war, and the release of the hostages,” Abbas told dozens of representatives from Israeli peace organisations assembled at the presidential palace in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“A few months ago, (US President Donald) Trump had a plan to expel the Palestinians, but later he forgot about it,” he added.

“Nevertheless, we will remain in our homeland and establish a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem,” he said.

Speaking from a podium in the presence of Arab-Israeli Knesset member Ayman Odeh and the Palestinian Authority’s vice president Hussein al-Sheikh, a jovial Abbas spoke to a friendly audience, sometimes exchanging smiles and jokes with activists.

Two power cuts momentarily left all attendees in the dark, an AFP journalist reported.

Among them was Iddo Ilam, an activist and refusnik who explained why he chose not to serve in the Israeli army, as Abbas gestured to him with two thumbs up.

“We are asking for a different future, peace between Jews and Palestinians,” said Rula Daoud, co-director of Standing Together, an Israeli grassroots movement aiming to bring together Palestinian and Jewish Israeli communities.

Absent from the conversation were the details of the ceasefire agreement struck early Thursday between Israel and Hamas – an adversary of Abbas’s Fatah party.

The deal is expected to free the remaining living hostages still held in Gaza within days, in a major step toward ending the two-year war that has killed tens of thousands and unleashed a dire humanitarian crisis.

The deal would also see Israel release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and allow a surge of aid into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but rejected the option of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) ruling over post-war Gaza.

Nonetheless, its vice president Hussein al-Sheikh said on X on Thursday that the PA had conducted all preparations to govern the post-war Gaza Strip and oversee its reconstruction.