Israel and Hamas agree to six-week ceasefire with hostages set for release
The deal includes the release of dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinians react to news on a ceasefire deal with Israel, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: XinhuaIsrael and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal that calls for releasing dozens of hostages and bringing a temporary halt to the war in the Gaza Strip.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the last 15 months and touched off broader turmoil across the Middle East.
Fine print of the ceasefire
Qatari and US officials said the ceasefire would start Sunday and last six weeks. Thirty-three hostages captured after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, will be released. Israel will withdraw from populated areas of the Gaza Strip and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The agreement would pause fighting that has all but destroyed Gaza. It is a strip of land on the Mediterranean coast controlled by Hamas militants that’s home to more than 2 million people.
US President Joe Biden said a truce would also lead to an increase in humanitarian aid to the territory.
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What has been the response?
Hamas said in a statement that the accord was the result of “the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people”.
Shortly after the deal was announced, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that several details still needed to be worked out.
In a separate statement, Netanyahu thanked president-elect Donald Trump for his help in advancing the release of the hostages and said he would meet Trump in Washington soon. Netanyahu also spoke to Biden and thanked him for his help, according to the statement.
Biden and Trump both took credit for the deal. Trump said it could have only happened with his November election victory, even though he has yet to take office. Biden said it was the result of painstaking American diplomacy over many months.
“During the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end of the war,” Biden said in a speech from the White House.
Turmoil in the Middle East
Word of the ceasefire sparked celebrations on the streets in the Gaza Strip and offered at least tentative hope of a reduction in violence.
The conflict has caused turmoil in the broader Middle East region. Other Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel stepped up an offensive against Hezbollah in September, killing its top leaders and severely degrading the group.
Israel’s actions sparked a backlash, with a United Nations special envoy saying there were reasonable grounds to conclude that the country had committed genocide in Gaza. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, came to the same conclusion.
The ceasefire comes more than a year after a week-long truce in November 2023, under which more than 100 hostages were released in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees.
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Since then, Israeli forces have overrun much of Gaza in their bid to destroy Hamas as both a military and governing force. Hamas holdouts have managed to keep fighting in some parts of the enclave.
The Houthis have all but shut the southern Red Sea to Western ships with persistent missile and drone attacks, while Iran and Israel briefly exchanged direct fire in April and October.
Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are all designated terrorist organisations by the US and many other countries.
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s most recent military campaigns, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Israel has lost hundreds of soldiers to the fighting.