Gaza ceasefire to take effect 2.30pm on Jan 19: Mediator Qatar

JERUSALEM – A ceasefire in the Gaza war will begin at 8.30am (2.30pm Singapore time) on Jan 19, mediator Qatar has said after Israel’s Cabinet

voted to approve the ceasefire and hostage-prisoner release deal

.

However, Israel said no Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would be freed before late afternoon on Jan 19.

Qatar and the United States, which mediated the deal along with Egypt, had

announced the agreement

on Jan 15.

Following that announcement, Israeli bombardment of the territory killed at least 113 people, Gaza’s civil defence rescue agency said on Jan 17, after Israel’s military reported hitting about 50 targets in 24 hours.

On Jan 18, AFP photos showed Palestinians in the southern city of Khan Yunis mourning four members of a family killed in another Israeli strike.

A Palestinian militant spokesman said on Jan 18 that Israeli hostages’ families should ask the Israeli military to stop intensified strikes in the final hours before a ceasefire takes effect as this “would be reason for killing their children”.

The spokesman Abu Hamza is with the Al Quds Brigades armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza. It holds Israeli hostages in addition to the ones held by the enclave’s dominant militant movement Hamas. 

Explosions were heard over Jerusalem on the morning of Jan 18 after warning sirens blared and the military said a projectile had been launched from Yemen, whose Iran-backed rebels say they support the Palestinians.

“As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8.30am on Sunday, Jan 19, local time in Gaza,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said on X on Jan 18.

“We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.”

In more than 15 months of war between Hamas Palestinian militants and Israel, there has been only

one previous truce, for one week, in November 2023.

That deal also saw the release of hostages held by the militants in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

“The government has approved the hostage return plan,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early on Jan 18 after the Cabinet held its vote.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said the deal “supports achieving the objectives of the war”.

Israel’s Justice Ministry said 737 Palestinian prisoners and detainees will be freed as part of the first phase of the deal – none before 4pm local time (10pm Singapore time) on Jan 19. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, announcing the agreement on Jan 15, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released by militants in Gaza.

Post-war governance

The ceasefire is to take effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as United States President.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has completed preparations “to assume full responsibility in Gaza” after the war.

Israel has no definitive stance on post-war governance beyond rejecting any role for both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Gaza should be under Palestinian Authority control.

Yemen’s Houthis, who have aligned themselves with Hamas, said on Jan 18 they would coordinate closely with the Palestinian resistance to deal with Israel in case of any violations of the Gaza ceasefire deal. 

Israel’s Cabinet endorsement of the deal came despite eight ministers voting against it, including far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Hamas’ armed wing warned that continued Israeli strikes risked the lives of hostages and could turn their “freedom... into a tragedy”.

Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023,

attack on Israel triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,876 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Unusual pairing

Mediators had worked for months to reach a deal but the efforts were fruitless until Trump’s inauguration neared.

Mr Brett McGurk, the pointman for outgoing US President Joe Biden, was joined in the region by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff in an unusual pairing to finalise the agreement, US officials said.

On Jan 17, the Qatari Prime Minister said: “We seek a full implementation of the first phase, and for the second phase to be the final.

“We are waiting for the Security Council to issue a binding resolution to implement the agreement.”

The Israeli authorities assume the 33 captives to be released in the first phase are alive, but Hamas has yet to confirm that.

Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return “to their residences”, the Qatari Prime Minister said.

An Israeli military official said reception points had been established at Kerem Shalom, Erez and Reim, where hostages would be joined by doctors and mental health specialists before being “transported via helicopter or vehicle” to hospitals in Israel.

Israel “is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences”, a source said on condition of anonymity.

During talks on Jan 17, negotiators agreed to form a joint operations room in Cairo to “ensure effective coordination” and compliance with the ceasefire terms, the Egyptian state-linked media reported.

Mr Biden said the second phase could bring a “permanent end to the war”.

In aid-starved Gaza, humanitarian workers caution that a monumental task lies ahead.

On Jan 17, British lawmakers warned that Israeli legislation banning the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees threatens the ceasefire deal. The ban on the main aid agency in Gaza is to take effect by the end of January. AFP, REUTERS