Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage release deal, with President-elect Trump publicly celebrating the news shortly after noon Wednesday. No announcement had been made by the Biden administration as of noon Wednesday. An Israeli official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday a deal has been reached, and predicted it would quickly move through a formal approval process. The deal would open the door for a possible end to more than a year of fighting since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel, and Israel’s subsequent war against the U.S.-designated terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.  The Israeli wartime Cabinet will have to vote to accept the terms of the deal, and then a second vote will go before Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. If the deal passes both those votes, there will also be time for appeals against the deal to be brought to the Supreme Court. An Israeli official told The Hill that the process should now move quickly, and the ceasefire could start as soon as Friday. President-elect Trump reacted on his social media site Truth Social, "WE HAVE A DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY. THANK YOU!" Trump had warned of "all hell" breaking loose in the Middle East if Hamas did not release hostages before he is sworn into office Jan. 20, and his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, worked closely with President Biden's negotiators to reach a conclusion of the deal.  Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted the reports of a deal during the confirmation hearing for Trump's nominee for secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). "Before we all celebrate, obviously, we're all going to want to see how that executes," Risch said.  Rubio, addressing the possibility of a ceasefire during his hearing, gave credit to both the Biden team and the Trump transition team for working side-by-side. Asked if he supported a Palestinian state, the end goal for the Biden administration's diplomatic efforts in the region, Rubio would not commit. "Part of that [ceasefire] deal has this very tenuous but important six-week period, [to transition] to a civil administration, that could serve as a foundation to build upon. We don’t know yet," Rubio said.  The contours of the deal are described as largely matching President Biden’s May proposal, which was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in June. That deal called for a phased ceasefire deal, with a first phase that would allow for the release of some hostages held by Hamas, the scale-up of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.  Hamas is reportedly prepared to release 33 hostages in the first phase of the deal — children, women, female soldiers, the elderly and the sick. Israeli officials told the Times of Israel that most of the 33 are alive, but that some are dead.  If the first phase of the deal is carried out, then on the 16th day, Israel will begin negotiations on a second stage to free the remaining captives — male soldiers and men of military age — and the bodies of slain hostages, Israeli officials told the Times. It is believed Hamas holds 94 hostages kidnapped from southern Israel during its Oct. 7 attack, out of 250 originally kidnapped. About 100 people were released during a week-long ceasefire at the end of November 2023. The Israeli military confirmed it knows 34 of the hostages are dead.  Israel is expected to hold on to significant “assets,” including high-profile Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism, and territory in the Gaza strip, to use as leverage in a second stage of negotiations to ensure that all hostages are released, the Times reported.  Israel will also begin to withdraw its military from the Gaza Strip. There were some earlier gaps between Israel and Hamas over the group's demand that Israel withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip on Gaza's border with Egypt. During the period of the release of the hostages, humanitarian aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip are expected to scale-up to about 600 trucks per day.  Israel has faced intense criticism for throttling the distribution of humanitarian aid and failing to ensure safe routes for delivery. Israel officials argue it has facilitated hundreds of aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip and coordinated pickups with humanitarian groups. Updated at 12:52 p.m. EST