Donald Trump told thousands of roaring supporters he would impose severe limits on immigration on his first day in office, vowing to swiftly fulfill the central promise of his presidential campaign at a rally on Sunday inside a packed Washington arena a day before he returns to power.

"By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt," he said to cheers at a "Make America Great Again Victory Rally" at the Capital One Arena.

Trump repeated his campaign pledge to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, which would remove millions of immigrants. An operation of that scale, however, would likely take years and be hugely costly, Reuters reported.

The rally resembled the free-wheeling campaign speeches that have been a Trump staple since his first serious White House run in 2016, with the former and future president delivering a mix of boasts, false claims and sweeping promises to the delight of the crowd.

"This is the greatest political movement in American history, and 75 days ago, we achieved the most epic political victory our country has ever seen," he said. "Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed of strength and fix every single crisis facing our country."

The event marked his first major address in Washington since his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol by an angry mob of his supporters. 

Trump has said he will pardon many of the more than 1,500 people convicted or charged in connection with the attack.

Trump's rally, along with his inaugural address on Monday, could preview the tone he plans to adopt during his second White House term. 

In recent weeks, Trump has bewildered foreign allies by musing aloud about taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal and turning Canada into a U.S. state.

He vowed to repeal "every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration" within hours of assuming the presidency at noon.

A source familiar with the planning said Trump will take more than 200 executive actions on Monday.

Border security will figure prominently in Trump's first executive orders, another source said, including classifying drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and moving toward reinstatement of the "Remain in Mexico" policy that forces non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court dates.

Trump's deportation plans have unsettled immigrants subject to removal, including some who immigrant advocates say are law-abiding, long-term residents with U.S.-citizen spouses and children.

Trump said he would "get radical woke ideologies the hell out of our military" and order the military to construct a missile defense shield over the U.S., though he has yet to offer details on how to carry it out.

He also pledged to release classified documents relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and his brother Senator Robert Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., both in 1968.

At least 70 people were killed and more injured in northern Nigeria on Saturday when a petrol tanker truck overturned, spilling fuel that exploded, the country's national emergency agency said.

The accident in Niger state follows a similar blast in Jigawa state last October that killed 147 people, one of the worst such tragedies in Nigeria, Reuters reported.

"As of this report, over 70 bodies have been recovered, 56 individuals are injured, and more than 15 shops have been destroyed," the National Emergency Management Authority said in a statement.

"The injured have been transported to hospitals for treatment, while recovery efforts for the deceased are ongoing."

A Reuters witness said residents and officials were digging graves with a view to bury the victims on Saturday night in accordance with Islamic rites. Niger is a largely Muslim state in Africa's most populous nation.

Earlier, Kumar Tsukwam, the Federal Road Safety Corps sector commander for Niger state, said most of the victims were impoverished local residents who had rushed to scoop up the spilled petrol after the truck overturned.

"Large crowd of people gathered to scoop fuel despite concerted efforts to stop them," Tsukwam said in a statement.

Tsukwam said firefighters had managed to put out the fire.

Such accidents have become common in Africa's largest oil producer, killing dozens of people in the country grappling with its worst cost of living crisis in a generation, read the report.

The price of petrol in Nigeria has soared more than 400% since President Bola Tinubu scrapped a decades-old subsidy when he came into office in May 2023.

Bologi Ibrahim, spokesperson to Niger state governor, said residents should give priority to their safety when petrol tanker trucks are involved in accidents.

Israel's cabinet approved a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement's scheduled start.

In the early hours of Saturday after meeting for more than six hours, the government ratified the agreement that could pave the way for an end to the 15-month-old war in the Palestinian enclave, which Hamas controls, Reuters reported.

"The Government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages' release will come into effect on Sunday," Netanyahu's office said in a brief statement.

In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes have kept up heavy attacks since the ceasefire deal was agreed. Medics in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike early on Saturday killed five people in a tent in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the enclave's south.

This brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment since the accord was announced on Wednesday.

After the Israeli cabinet approval, lead U.S. negotiator Brett McGurk said the plan was moving forward on track. The White House expects the ceasefire to start on Sunday morning, with three female hostages to be released to Israel on Sunday afternoon through the Red Cross.

"We have locked down every single detail in this agreement. We are quite confident... it is ready to be implemented on Sunday," McGurk said on CNN from the White House.

Under the deal, the three-stage ceasefire starts with an initial six-week phase when hostages held by Hamas will be exchanged for prisoners detained by Israel.

Thirty-three of the 98 remaining Israeli hostages, including women, children, and men over 50, were due to be freed in this phase. Israel will release all Palestinian women and children under 19 in Israeli jails by the end of the first phase.

The names of 95 Palestinian prisoners to be turned over on Sunday were announced by the Israeli Justice Ministry on Friday.

After Sunday's hostage release, McGurk said the accord called for four more female hostages to be released after seven days followed by the release of three further hostages every seven days thereafter.

HARDLINERS OPPOSE CEASEFIRE

With the accord bitterly opposed by some Israeli cabinet hardliners, media reports said 24 ministers in Netanyahu's coalition government voted in favour of the deal while eight opposed it.

The opponents said the ceasefire agreement represented a capitulation to Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if it was approved and urged other ministers to vote against it. However, he said he would not bring down the government.

His fellow hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also threatened to quit the government if it does not go back to war to defeat Hamas after the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.

After a last-minute delay on Thursday that Israel blamed on Hamas, the Israeli security cabinet voted on Friday in favour of the ceasefire accord, the first of two approvals required.

Israel began its assault on Gaza after Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 during which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

The war between Israeli forces and Hamas has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people and displaced most of the enclave's pre-war population of 2.3 million several times over, according to local authorities.

If successful, the ceasefire could also ease hostilities in the Middle East, where the Gaza war spread to include Iran and its proxies - Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and armed groups in Iraq as well as the occupied West Bank.

Gaza civilians have faced a humanitarian crisis due to hunger, cold and sickness. The ceasefire agreement calls for a surge in assistance, and international organisations have aid trucks lined up on Gaza's borders to bring in food, fuel, medicine and other vital supplies.

Palestinian relief agency UNRWA said on Friday that it has 4,000 truckloads of aid, half of which are food, ready to enter the coastal strip.

Palestinians waiting for food in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday said they hoped a truce will mean an end to hours of queuing to fill one plate.

"I hope it will happen so we'll be able to cook in our homes and make whatever food we want, without having to go to soup kitchens and exhaust ourselves for three or four hours trying to get (food) - sometimes not even making it home," displaced Palestinian Reeham Sheikh al-Eid said.