People walk past stalls selling goods amid the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
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Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
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Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement on a multi-phase ceasefire that commits them to ending the war in Gaza, President Biden and the Prime Minister of Qatar announced separately on Wednesday.
“This agreement will end the fighting in Gaza, increase much-needed humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians, and reunite hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” Biden said. He said this was the same proposal he made in May 2024 and which was approved by the United Nations Security Council.
Neither Israel nor Hamas immediately confirmed the agreement, but officials close to the negotiations told NPR that the two sides had reached a tentative ceasefire intended to end more than 15 months of fighting. most violent ever recorded between the two parties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said there remained “several unresolved issues” but hoped “details would be finalized this evening.”
The agreement comes after weeks of intensive rounds of indirect negotiations in Doha, the Qatari capital, between Israel and Hamas, mediated by facilitators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar. In an unusual twist, envoys from President Biden’s administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team were also present, pressuring the parties to reach a deal.
Relatives and supporters of hostages held in the Gaza Strip gather outside the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on January 14.
Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images
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Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images
The ceasefire is expected to begin on Sunday, according to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Several technical details of the agreement remain unclear and it will require formal ratification by the Israeli cabinet before it can enter into force. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on “the Israeli cabinet and government to accept and approve it when it is presented,” declaring: “At the cost of much blood, through enormous security, diplomatic and societal, we have created a moment of opportunity. We have to take hold of it.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was interrupting his trip to Europe to return to Israel for a government meeting on the ceasefire, scheduled for Thursday. The country’s Minister of Culture and Sports, Miki Zohar, said in a statement that he would vote on the deal on Thursday with his cabinet colleagues. “It is the duty of every government minister to vote in favor of the deal,” Zohar said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hamas issued a statement describing a meeting between one of its senior leaders, Mohammed Darwish, and Ziad al-Nakhalah, the leader of another armed faction operating inside Gaza, the Hamas group. Islamic Jihad. The statement said that the discussion between the two men consisted of “underscoring the importance of all the efforts made to make this round of negotiations a success.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed news of the agreement, saying: “Our priority must be to alleviate the enormous suffering caused by this conflict. …I call on all parties to facilitate rapid, unimpeded and safe humanitarian assistance for all civilians. in need.”
An agreement in three phases
However, many obstacles remain, and the fighting continues. Palestinian officials reported that Israeli attacks killed more than 50 people on Wednesday. But if all goes as planned, the deal should take effect within days and take place in three phases over an extended period.
In the first phase, lasting six weeks, Hamas promises to release 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for a much larger number of Palestinian detainees. It is unclear how many are involved, as the group wants more detainees for each hostage released alive, but has not said how many are still alive. Most, but not all, are believed to be alive, according to Israeli authorities.
The total number of Palestinians freed from Israel’s hands is expected to be around 1,000, according to a Palestinian official who was not authorized to speak to the media.
Israel will reduce – but will not end – its military presence in Gaza in the first phase. Hamas will not release the last hostages and Israel will only completely withdraw from Gaza in a later phase. The timelines involved were not immediately clear.
President-elect Trump said on his social media that there was a deal involving hostages. “THEY WILL BE RELEASED SOON,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Israeli President Isaac Herzog posted a photo on social media showing Herzog meeting at his presidential residence in Jerusalem with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, in what he is wearing -spokesman said he was “part of the preparations for the hostage transaction.
This is the first truce since November 2023
It would be the first formal ceasefire since a week-long truce in November 2023, which included an exchange of around 100 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and 240 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons. Subsequently, other hostages in Gaza were rescued or found dead.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages in Gaza.
“We, the families of 98 hostages, welcome with immense joy and relief the agreement to bring our loved ones home,” said a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “We want to express our deep gratitude to President-elect Trump, President Biden, both administrations and the international mediators for making this possible.”
The war has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, who said the majority were women and children. The Israeli army says 405 soldiers have been killed in fighting since its invasion of Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have fought numerous wars since the Palestinian militant organization wrested control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. However, none of the previous conflicts have been as long or as deadly.
