Gaza Ceasefire Deal Reached By Israel, Hamas
By Juliet Vincent
Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday so long as it was approved by the Israeli cabinet.
US President Joe Biden said it would “halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal’s final details were still being worked on, but he thanked Biden for “promoting” it. Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said it was the result of Palestinian “resilience”.
Qatar’s prime minister called for “calm” on both sides before the start of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire deal, which he said would see 33 hostages – including women, children and elderly people – exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli forces will also withdraw to the east away from densely populated areas of Gaza, displaced Palestinians will be allowed to begin returning to their homes and hundreds of aid lorries will be allowed into the territory each day.
Negotiations for the second phase – which should see the remaining hostages released, a full Israeli troop withdrawal and a return to “sustainable calm” – will start on the 16th day.
The third and final stage will involve the reconstruction of Gaza – something which could take years – and the return of any remaining hostages’ bodies.
Israel’s cabinet has to meet on Thursday morning to give its final approval.
The ceasefire and the release of the first three Israeli hostages is expected to come on Sunday although a senior Hamas official has told the BBC there are talks ongoing to bring the start forward to Thursday night.
Sheikh Mohammed said there was “a clear mechanism to negotiate phase two and three”, with the agreements set to be published “in the next couple of days, once the details are finalised”.
He also said Qatar, the US and Egypt, which also helped broker the deal, would work together to ensure Israel and Hamas fulfilled their obligations.
“We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” he added.
President Biden said the plan, which he first outlined eight months ago, was “the result not only of the extreme pressure Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and the weakening of Iran – but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy”.
“Even as we welcome this news, we remember all the families whose loved ones were killed in Hamas’s 7 October attack, and the many innocent people killed in the war that followed,” a statement added. “It is long past time for the fighting to end and the work of building peace and security to begin.”
At a later news conference, Biden also acknowledged the assistance of President-elect Donald Trump, who put pressure on both parties by demanding hostages be released before his inauguration on Monday.
“In these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” he said, noting that most of the implementation of the deal would happen after he left office. (BBC)
