Ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to begin
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A armistice The conflict between Israel and Hamas was set to begin on Sunday morning, ending 15 months of brutal war in Gaza and paving the way for release hostages is still being held by the Palestinian militant group in the devastated enclave.
The six-week ceasefire – the first phase of a multi-stage agreement negotiated by US-led intermediaries last week after months of failed attempts to reach an agreement was due to come into force at 08.30 a.m. local time (06.30 GMT).
If the ceasefire is maintained, Hamas will release three of the 98 hostages it still holds in Gaza later on Sunday. In return, Israel will release 90 Palestinian prisoners.
But in a sign of the fragility of the arrangements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said barely an hour before the deal took effect that it would not come into force unless Hamas notified Israel of the names of the hostages to be released on Sunday.
Minutes later, Hamas said in a statement that it was committed to the ceasefire and that the delay in sending the names was due to “technical reasons on the ground.”
The multi-stage agreement offers hope for an end – and possibly an end – to the bloodiest war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which left Gaza in ruins, consumed Israeli society and brought the Middle East to the brink of full-scale war .
The fighting was sparked by Hamas’ shocking attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials, in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with a devastating attack on Gaza that Palestinian officials said killed more than 46,000 people, displaced most of the coastal enclave’s 2.3 million residents and fueled a humanitarian disaster.
After more than half a year of failed attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, negotiators announced last week that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a three-stage deal first outlined by US President Joe Biden in May last year.
The first phase includes a six-week ceasefire in which Hamas will release a total of 33 hostages – including children, women, the sick and the elderly – in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
In the first phase of the agreement, displaced Palestinians will be allowed to return to their homes, including in the north of the Gaza Strip. There will also be a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a massive influx of humanitarian aid to the enclave.
If the deal is implemented as planned, by the 16th day of the first phase, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiating the details of the deal’s second phase, in which the remaining live hostages will be released in exchange for hundreds more Palestinian prisoners’ withdrawal Israeli forces out of Gaza and a permanent end to the war.
The final phase includes the return of the remaining bodies of the deceased hostages and the start of the reconstruction of Gaza under the supervision of Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
However, questions remain as to whether the deal will be fully implemented, as Netanyahu faces intense pressure from far-right members of his coalition to restart the war at the end of the deal’s first phase.
On Saturday evening, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said his Jewish Power party would quit the government in protest at the deal, shrinking Netanyahu’s majority in Israel’s 120-seat parliament to just two seats.
Ben-Gvir’s ultranationalist ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has also threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if the war does not resume after the first phase of the deal. If he did so, it would deprive Netanyahu of his parliamentary majority.
