Israel, Hamas reach long-awaited ceasefire deal to end Gaza war
Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire deal to end the Gaza war, US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday, over 15 months after the October 7 attack by Iran-backed militants triggered the bloody conflict.
The Israel-Hamas deal outlines six-week initial ceasefire phase that includes gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from central Gaza and return of displaced Palestinians to north Gaza, Reuters reported citing an official briefed on the agreement.
US President Joe Biden hailed the deal in a White House speech, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The grueling war began when Gaza-based Palestinian militants' attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.
Israel's incursion into the enclave killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, and morphed into a region-wide confrontation between Iran-backed armed groups and Israel, which receives weapons and funding from the United States.
Iran finds itself on the backfoot as the confrontation winds down, with Israeli blows pounding Hezbollah into a ceasefire Lebanon, weakening Iran's ally Bashar al-Assad in the face of a rebel advance which toppled him, degrading Iran-backed Palestinian militants in Gaza and hitting Iranian military targets directly in October.
Only the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen appeared to fight on largely unscathed.
The agreement comes after months of negotiations facilitated by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with support from the United States and was reached just before the January 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff took part in the latest diplomacy and was present in a news conference in Doha convened on Wednesday by foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a main interlocutor between the warring sides.
The President-elect had repeatedly vowed that "all hell will break out" in the Middle East if Hamas did not agree to release the hostages by January 20.
But Biden appeared keen not to attribute the diplomatic breakthrough to his successor, responding to a shouted question by a journalist on who deserves credit for the deal, Biden or Trump: "Is that a joke?"
Phased hostage release
According to the deal, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages in a first phase, including all women including soldiers and civilians, children and men over 50.
Israel, in turn, will release 30 Palestinian detainees for every civilian hostage and 50 Palestinian detainees for every Israeli female soldier Hamas releases. Israel will also release all Palestinian women and children under 19 detained since October 7, 2023, by the end of phase one.
The total number of Palestinians released will depend on the hostages released and could range between 990 and 1,650 Palestinian detainees, including men, women, and children.
Hamas will release hostages over a six-week period, with three hostages released every week, and the remainder before the end of the period, Reuters reported citing the official briefed
The release of hostages will begin with the living, followed by the remains of those who have died. Qatar, Egypt, and the US will guarantee the implementation of the agreement, Reuters reported.
Israeli forces entered Gaza following an October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants who breached security barriers and infiltrated Israeli communities, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians while taking over 250 hostages, both foreign and Israeli.
Israel's military actions in Gaza have resulted in over 46,000 deaths, according to Gaza health ministry data, leaving the coastal strip in ruins, with hundreds of thousands of survivors enduring harsh winter conditions in tents and temporary shelters.
