Negotiators announced Wednesday that they had reached a cease-fire agreement in the war in the Gaza Strip, 15 months into the conflict. The devastating Hamas-led attack on Israeli soil launched a brutal military campaign almost unprecedented in recent history.
The attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023 that triggered it all killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and shocked the Israeli public. In the months that followed, an estimated 45,000 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed in Gaza and entire towns were destroyed.
On Wednesday, Gazans hoped for an end to months of hunger, destruction and terror, and Israelis anxiously prepared to welcome home dozens of men and women taken hostage by Hamas in a 2023 attack.
Under the terms of an interim agreement reached in the waning days of the Biden administration, Israeli forces will begin withdrawing troops and Hamas will begin releasing some of the hostages it captured during the bloody raid that triggered the war. . If approved by the Israeli Cabinet, the ceasefire will come into effect on Sunday.
“The whole country is holding its breath tonight,” said Yair Lapid, Israel’s centrist opposition leader whose cabinet is scheduled to vote on the deal on Thursday.
“This is a historic moment in our conflict with our enemy,” Hamas said in a statement. He praised the “legendary resilience” of Gazans in the face of a war that has caused a humanitarian crisis. One of the group’s leaders also praised the Hamas-led offensive that sparked the war, despite the bitter price paid by Palestinians.
Celebrations began in both Gaza and Israel on Wednesday amid concerns that some details of the deal are still being worked out.
“Praise be to God, this tragedy is over,” said Mohammad Fares, 24, a resident of Gaza City, as celebratory whistles and gunshots could be heard in the background.
But in a destroyed Gaza, which bears little resemblance to the enclave that existed before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at completely destroying Hamas, there is no joy among Palestinians. Sadness and anxiety remained the dominant emotions.
“How can we rebuild?” asked Suzanne Abu Dhaka, who lives in a suburb near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis. “Where should we start?”
In Israel, the families of the hostages issued a statement expressing “extreme joy and relief” over the deal, but also “deep anxiety and concern” that some hostages may be left behind. Of the approximately 250 people detained in Israel on October 7, 2023, approximately 100 remain in Gaza. Approximately one-third are believed to have died in captivity.
Even as a tentative ceasefire was celebrated, some were at pains not to overstate what might be achieved. Announcing the deal, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani spoke of “sustainable peace.”
But the deal was a major breakthrough after months of rollercoaster talks that often seemed to inch closer to a resolution but then fell apart. With only a few days left in President Biden’s term, the administration was pressing for a truce.
“Too many innocent people have died and too many communities have been destroyed,” an ebullient Biden told reporters at a news conference.
His successor, President-elect Donald J. Trump, has threatened severe consequences if Israel and Hamas do not reach an agreement by Inauguration Day on January 20, and Biden said the White House has discussed talks with the Trump team. suggested that he did.
“We are handing over to the next team a real opportunity for a bright future for the Middle East,” he said. “I hope they accept it.”
After months of stalemate, negotiations have gotten into full swing in Qatar’s capital Doha in recent days, with negotiations accelerating as Trump’s inauguration approaches. U.S. officials from both the departing and new administrations promoted the latest efforts to reach a deal, with Qatar and Egypt acting as intermediaries between Hamas and Israel.
The ceasefire will have several phases, with the first phase lasting six weeks. In the meantime, Israeli forces in Gaza will withdraw to the east, away from populated areas, and about 33 hostages will be released, al-Thani said. In return, Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would be released.
The 33 hostages to be released in the first phase include women and children, men over 50, and the sick and injured. It is still unclear how many of the group are still alive, but Israeli authorities estimate that most are.
In the first phase, 600 trucks loaded with desperately needed humanitarian aid were scheduled to enter Gaza each day. And displaced Gazans will be able to return to the north, where the Israeli invasion began.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in southern Gaza have been living in tents, makeshift shelters, rented houses and relatives’ apartments for more than a year. Many people planning to return to the north will likely find their homes and neighborhoods destroyed.
By the 16th day, negotiations will begin on the second phase of the agreement, which will also last six weeks and will focus on further exchanges of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
A cease-fire deal still needs to be passed by Israel’s cabinet, but some hard-right parliamentarians on whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relies to stay in power are openly opposed to it.
Amid rumors that a ceasefire agreement may be near, Itamar Ben Gvir, one of the far-right members of the coalition government, said: video statement It calls on other countries to join forces and abandon any agreement by quitting the Netanyahu government.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right Cabinet member, said he absolutely opposes the deal, calling it “evil and dangerous for Israel’s national security.” However, he did not explicitly threaten to leave the government.
Netanyahu’s critics, including many of the hostage families, often accuse him of sabotaging past efforts to reach a deal in order to preserve his coalition, the most right-wing and religiously conservative in Israeli history. I’ve done it.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Wednesday he believed a majority of cabinet members would sign the deal. “Leadership is about making decisions that are either bad or very bad,” Searle said, adding that regarding hostages, “If we postpone the decision, we don’t know how many people will survive.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the government to approve the deal. “There is no greater moral, human, Jewish, Israeli obligation than to bring our sons and daughters back to us, whether they are recuperating at home or resting in peace. ” he said.
On Wednesday, with no ceasefire in place, the Gaza Civil Defense Authority said Israeli airstrikes continued across the enclave, including on residential buildings in northern Gaza City, leaving two dead. It was reported that it was announced.
The fighting in Gaza over the past year, combined with the widespread illegality that followed the invasion, has created major obstacles to distributing aid. As humanitarian groups prepared to move into the affected areas on Wednesday, they made it clear that even if a ceasefire were reached, it would still not be easy.
“This is a moment of hope and opportunity,” said Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. “But we should be under no illusions about how difficult it remains to get support for survivors.”
Report contributor: Hiba Yazbek, Abu Bakr Bashir, Jonathan Rees, Lawan Sheikh Ahmad, Ismael Naar and Efrat Livni.
