Israel, Hamas reach ceasefire deal to end 15 months of war in Gaza
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DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM - Negotiators reached a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza that mediators said would take effect on Jan 19 and include a release of hostages held there during 15 months of bloodshed that devastated the Palestinian enclave and inflamed the Middle East.
The complex phased accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed.
Hostages taken by militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
At a news conference in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the ceasefire would take effect on Jan 19. Negotiators are working with Israel and Hamas on steps for implementing the deal, he said.
“This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” US President Joe Biden said in Washington.
Despite the breakthrough, residents said Israeli air strikes continued on the evening of Jan 15 in Gaza, where more than 46,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to local health authorities. Strikes on Gaza City and northern Gaza killed at least 32 people, medics said.
A Palestinian official close to the talks said mediators were trying to get both sides to stop hostilities before the truce starts on Jan 19.
Palestinians responded to news of the deal by celebrating in the streets of Gaza
“I am happy, yes, I am crying, but those are tears of joy,” said Ms Ghada, a displaced mother of five.
In Tel Aviv, families of Israeli hostages and their friends rejoiced at the news
Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country’s security Cabinet and government, with votes slated for Jan 16, an Israeli official said.
The accord was expected to win approval despite opposition from some hardliners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who repeated his condemnation of the agreement on Jan 15.
Mr Netanyahu called Mr Biden and US President-elect Donald Trump to thank them and said he would visit Washington soon, his office said.
In a social media statement announcing the ceasefire, Hamas called the pact “an achievement for our people” and “a turning point”.
Defusing regional tensions
If successful, the ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.
That in turn could defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.
Phase one of the deal
Two American hostages
The agreement calls for a surge in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the “priority now must be to ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict”.
Both the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they were preparing to massively scale up their aid operations.
Family members of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their supporters lighting torches as they reacted to ceasefire reports outside the Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan 15.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
The pact follows months of tortuous, on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the US, and comes just ahead of the Jan 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi welcomed the agreement in a post on social media platform X, as did leaders and officials from Turkey, Britain, the UN, Jordan, Germany and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
On his Truth Social media site, Trump said the deal would not have happened if he had not won the US election in November.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Qatar along with White House envoys for the talks, and a senior Biden administration official said Mr Witkoff’s presence was critical to reaching a deal after 96 hours of intense negotiations.
Mr Biden said that the two teams had “been speaking as one” though Trump’s administration will largely handle implementation of the accord.
Palestinians standing among the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, amid ceasefire negotiations with Israel, in Gaza City, on Jan 15.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Perilous path ahead
The road ahead is complex, with political minefields likely. Israeli hostage families expressed concern that the accord may not be fully implemented, and some hostages may be left behind in Gaza.
Negotiations on implementing the second phase of the deal will begin by the 16th day of phase one, and this stage was expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The third stage is expected to address the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction supervised by Egypt, Qatar and the UN.
Trump said he would use the ceasefire deal as momentum to expand the Abraham Accords
If all goes smoothly, the Palestinians, Arab states and Israel must still agree on a vision for post-war Gaza, a formidable challenge involving security guarantees for Israel and many billions of dollars in investment for reconstruction.
One unanswered question is who will run Gaza after the war.
Smoke rising from a building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the central Gaza Strip, on Jan 12.
PHOTO: AFP
Israel has rejected any involvement by the Islamist Hamas, which had ruled Gaza since 2007 and is officially sworn to Israel’s destruction.
But Israel has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers
Israel’s air and ground war in Gaza has since killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people struggling through the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters. REUTERS
