What do we know about the agreement between Israel and Hamas on the ceasefire in Gaza? | News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire deal with Israel, Qatar and the United States said, after more than 460 days of war that ravaged Gaza.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said on Wednesday that the ceasefire agreement would take effect on Sunday, but added that work on implementation steps with Israel and Hamas was continuing. Israel says some final details remain, and a vote by the Israeli government is expected on Thursday.

Israel killed more than 46,000 Palestinians since the war against the enclave began in October 2023.

The deal includes a temporary ceasefire that will, for the time being, end the destruction that has hit Gaza, as well as the release of prisoners held in Gaza and many prisoners held by Israel. The deal will also finally allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes – although after Israel’s deliberate campaign of destruction, many homes no longer exist.

The first phase

The initial phase will last six weeks and will include a limited prisoner exchange, a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a wave of aid to the enclave.

Thirty-three Israeli prisoners, including women, children and civilians over the age of 50 – who were captured during a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 – will be freed. In exchange, Israel will release a large number of Palestinian prisoners during this phase, including those serving life sentences. Among the Palestinians who have been released are about 1,000 who were detained after October 7.

In tandem with the prisoner exchange, Israel will withdraw its forces from Gaza’s population centers to areas no more than 700 meters inside Gaza’s border with Israel. However, this may rule out the Netzarim Corridor, the militarized belt that bisects the Strip and controls movement along it – the withdrawal from Netzarim is expected to be phased instead.

Israel will allow civilians to return to their homes in the enclave’s besieged north, where aid agencies warn hunger may have taken over, and enable a wave of aid to the enclave – up to 600 trucks per day.

Israel will also allow wounded Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip for treatment, and will open the Rafah crossing with Egypt seven days after the start of the first phase.

Israeli forces will reduce their presence in the Philadelphia Corridor, the border area between Egypt and Gaza, and then withdraw completely no later than the 50th day after the agreement takes effect.

What happens after the first stage?

The details of the second and third phases, although it is understood that they have been agreed in principle, should be negotiated during the first phase. US President Joe Biden has said the ceasefire will continue even if talks on the second and third phases go beyond the initial six weeks of the first phase.

Critically, Israel has insisted that no written assurances be given that would rule out the possibility of resuming its attacks after the end of the first phase and the return of its civilian prisoners.

However, according to an Egyptian source cited by the Associated Press news agency, the three mediators involved in the talks – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – have given Hamas verbal assurances that the talks will continue and that all three will press for an agreement that the second and third phases would be implemented before the initial six-week period expires.

What is planned for the second phase?

If the conditions for the second phase are determined to be met, Hamas will release all remaining live prisoners, mostly male soldiers, in exchange for the release of more Palestinians held in the Israeli prison system. In addition, according to the current document, Israel would begin its “full withdrawal” from Gaza.

However, the terms, which have yet to be voted on by the Israeli government, are at odds with the expressed views of many far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, on which he also relies for support. as Netanyahu’s own past positions, in which he repeatedly used the presence of Hamas in Gaza to prolong the conflict.

The third phase

Details of the third phase remain unclear.

If the conditions of the second phase are met, the third phase will see the bodies of the remaining prisoners handed over in exchange for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan to be implemented under international supervision.

There is currently no agreement on who will govern Gaza after the ceasefire. The United States has been pushing for a reformed version of the Palestinian Authority to do so.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that post-war reconstruction and governance calls for the Palestinian Authority to call on “international partners” to establish an interim governing body to run key services and oversee the territory.

Other partners, particularly Arab states, will provide security forces in the short term, he said in a speech at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

For such a plan to succeed, it would need the support of Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, which have said they will support the plan only if there is a path to Palestinian statehood. This represents another point of contention for Israeli lawmakers, despite Israel agreeing to a two-state solution in the Oslo accords of the 1990s.

Israel has yet to propose an alternative form of government in Gaza.