WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he plans to leave for the Middle East sometime on Sunday, after Israel and Hamas reached a deal to release hostages held in Gaza.

Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas signed an agreement on Thursday to cease fire and free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of Trump's initiative to end the two-year war in Gaza that has upended the Middle East.

(Reporting By Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw)

Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, one of the main organizers of the international aid flotilla to Gaza, said Thursday that the movement to get life-saving relief to the devastated Palestinian enclave would continue, after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas.

"There is nothing in the ceasefire agreements to indicate that the illegal blockade of Gaza by Israel, the United States, or any other nation will end," he told reporters upon his return to Brazil.

"As long as there is no justice for the Palestinian people, the flotilla will continue."

CAIRO (Reuters) -Exiled Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya said on Thursday the group has received guarantees from the United States, Arab mediators, and Turkey that the war in Gaza has permanently ended.

Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas signed an agreement on Thursday to cease fire and free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump's initiative to end the two-year war in Gaza that has upended the Middle East.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that expanding Israeli settlements threatened a Palestinian state and US-led peace efforts, as France hosted Arab and European ministers to find ways to boost the Palestinians after a Gaza ceasefire deal was announced.

Macron hailed the ceasefire deal as a "great hope" for the region, but said the "acceleration" of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank was an "existential threat" to a Palestinian state.

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -With the Gaza war entering its third year, U.S. President Donald Trump has achieved something no other world leader has been able to do: strong-arm Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the first step of a broader peace deal while persuading other Middle Eastern countries to pressure Hamas.

By Jasper Ward

(Reuters) -The United Nations plans to ramp up its delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza in the first 60 days of a ceasefire in the enclave, a top UN official said on Thursday, hours after a deal was struck between Israel and Hamas.

The deal is expected to go into effect 24 hours after an Israeli government meeting on Thursday. It will allow fleets of trucks carrying food and medical aid into Gaza, and allow the release of hostages and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces.

It began with a hastily written note and a whisper. It ended with a Gaza deal long sought by Donald Trump.

Something was obviously going on when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an unexpected appearance during a roundtable at the White House on the left-wing Antifa movement on Wednesday.

"By the way, we have Marco Rubio. Marco, come on up here please," Trump said, beckoning him over to his side of the White House's State Dining Room. "Anything we should know about the Middle East?"

There was. But the scrupulously low-key Rubio was not about to do it in public.

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Gaza hostages should be released on Monday or Tuesday and that he hopes to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt.

Trump opened a White House Cabinet meeting by discussing a dealreached on Wednesday under which the hostages held by Hamas militants are to be released in the first phase of a broader Gaza plan. He said he believed it will lead to "lasting peace."

US President Donald Trump said he expected to travel to the Middle East on Sunday to celebrate the first phase of the Gaza peace deal and be there for the release of hostages by Hamas.

Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump said the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian armed group had "ended the war in Gaza."

The US leader added that "nobody's going to be forced to leave" the Palestinian territory under his 20-point peace plan, which formed the basis for indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel in Egypt.

LONDON (Reuters) -A Palestinian rights group on Thursday sought to overturn a ruling that Britain lawfully allowed F-35 fighter jet components to be indirectly exported to Israel, despite accepting they could be used to breach international humanitarian law.

Al-Haq, a group based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, unsuccessfully challenged Britain's Department for Business and Trade over its decision last year to exempt F-35 parts when it suspended export licences for arms that could be used in the conflict in Gaza.